AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO (354-430)

“There is something that’s truly sublime,

When you want some, it won’t cost a dime.

While feeling its presence

You don’t know its essence,

It’s the greatest of mysteries: time.”

Note: Augustine is famous for having said, in his Confessions, that if no one asks him what time is, then he knows what it is, whereas if someone asks him what time is, then he doesn’t know what it is.  Augustine and I disagree about this: even if someone doesn’t ask me what time is, I still don’t know what it is.  That shouldn’t be much of a surprise: no-one (except perhaps my colleague, Craig Callender) knows what time is.  (He must know what it is, because he’s never late.  Not even to a faculty meeting.)