Our hearts have peace in God

The life of St. Augustine offers strong writing on knowing God and the happiness that ensues from a relationship with him.

Here are some quotes from him that are running through my head tonight...

"O Lord, that I may love you [freely], for I can find nothing more precious."

"If your delight is in souls, love them in God...and draw as many with you to him as you can." "You yourself [O God] are their joy. Happiness is to rejoice in you and for you and because of you. This is true happiness and there is no other."

"The thread of our speech comes alive through the very joy we take in what we are speaking about."

On Evangelism: "I am not alone in this desire [for the blessed state of happiness], nor are there only a few who share it with me: without exception we all long for happiness...All agree that they want to be happy...They may all search for it in different ways, but all try their hardest to reach the same goal, that is, joy." "You made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace till they rest in you." "He is happy who possesses God."

On things of the world: "If the things of this world delight you, praise God for them but turn your love away from them and give it to their Maker, so that in the things that please you may not displease him."

The blanket quote for knowing Augustine's heart in his conversion:
"How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose!...You drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place...O Lord my God, my Light, my Wealth, and my Salvation."