Edition Masquer
Confessiones

Caput 16

Et tamen, domine, sentimus intervalla temporum, et comparamus sibimet, et dicimus alia longiora et alia breviora. metimur etiam, quanto sit longius aut brevius illud tempus quam illud, et respondemus duplum esse hoc vel triplum, illud autem simplum aut tantum hoc esse quantum illud. sed praetereuntia metimur tempora, cum sentiendo metimur; praeterita vero, quae iam non sunt, aut futura, quae nondum sunt, quis metiri potest, nisi forte audebit quid dicere metiri posse quod non est? cum ergo praeterit tempus, sentiri et metiri potest, cum autem praeterierit, quoniam non est, non potest.

Traduction Masquer
The Confessions of St. Augustin In Thirteen Books

Chapter XVI.--Time Can Only Be Perceived or Measured While It is Passing.

21. And yet, O Lord, we perceive intervals of times, and we compare them with themselves, and we say some are longer, others shorter. We even measure by how much shorter or longer this time may be than that; and we answer, "That this is double or treble, while that is but once, or only as much as that." But we measure times passing when we measure them by perceiving them; but past times, which now are not, or future times, which as yet are not, who can measure them? Unless, perchance, any one will dare to say, that that can be measured which is not. When, therefore, time is passing, it can be perceived and measured; but when it has passed, it cannot, since it is not.