“What, then, is time? If no one ask of me, I know; if I wish to explain to him who asks…”
What, then, is time? If no one ask of me, I know; if I wish to explain to him who asks, I know not.
Augustine of Hippo · Confessions · NPNF1 I, Confessions, Book XI, chapter xiv, 17
The opening of the discussion of time that occupies the eleventh book, and the most cited sentence in ancient philosophy on the subject: everyone knows what time is until they are asked.
How this is known
These words were matched, word for word, against this project’s own copy of the volume cited.
The project holds the volume this row cites, NPNF series 1 vol. 1, and the build matches these words against its bytes at every rebuild. Book XI is the book the locator names and the words are in it.
Read in Pilkington, NPNF series 1 vol. 1 (1886) · J. G. Pilkington, M.A.
Also by
- Augustine of Hippo every saying recorded of this person, and their page