My Confessions, in thirteen books, praise the righteous and good God as they speak either of my evil or good, and they are meant to excite men’s minds and affections toward him.

Grant me, Lord, to know and understand which is first, to call on Thee or to praise Thee? and, again, to know Thee or to call on Thee? for who can call on Thee, not knowing Thee? for he that knoweth …

The Confessions are one long prayer, a poetic, passionate, intimate prayer. It is paradoxical, but exact, to say that he prayed for the grace to pray: "Allow me to speak in your merciful presence" (I, 6, 7); …

“If St. Augustin,” says Nourrisson74, “had left nothing but his Confessions and the City of God, one could readily understand the respectful sympathy that surrounds his memory.

Augustine’s Africa faced north, across the tideless sea toward Italy. Augustine picked up his pen, prayed to his God to enable him to say what he had to say, and began. The Confessions are one long …

Thou awakest us to delight in Thy praise; for Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee.

Even though the word Confessions is plural, the practice adopted in this guide is to refer to it in the singular, on the ground that the word Confessions refers to the book as an entity, not to the plurality …