Everytime I revisit Augustine, I am amazed by the passion and beauty of his ideas. He is not a dry intellectual but a passionate lover. I’ve been reviewing some of his ideas on friendship for our upcoming Friendship Retreat. You might enjoy reflecting on some of these wonderful quotes from Augustine:

For any one who knows us may say of him and me, that in body only, and not in mind, we are two, so great is the union of heart, so firm the intimate friendship subsisting between us; though in merit we are not alike, for his is far above mine.

What is there to console us in this human society so full of errors and trials except the truth and mutual love of true and good friends.

It’s hard to laugh when you are by yourself.

The eyes of a friendship neither look down nor look up to a friend: they look at the friend.

He truly loves a friend who loves God in the friend, either because God is actually present in the friend or in order that God may be so present. This is true love. If we love another for another reason, we hate them more than we love them.

A person must be a friend of truth before they can be a friend of a human being.