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Late have I loved thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new;
late have I loved thee! For behold, thou wert within me and I outside;
and I sought thee outside and in my unloveliness
fell upon these lovely things that thou hast made.
Thou wert with me and I was not with thee.
I was kept from thee by those things,
yet had they not been in thee, they would not have been at all.
Thou didst call and cry to me and break open my deafness. . . .
I tasted thee, and now hunger and thirst for thee;
thou didst touch me,
and now I burn for thy peace.
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~ Saint Augustine
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