Dear Martin:

Please receive my cordial greetings, and I thank you for the question.

Before all else, let me tell you that Augustine did not write such a book entitled, “The Origin of the True and the False,” although he was a man who passionately searched for the truth and wrote two works about lying (On Lying and Against Lying).

There are two errors in the phrase mentioned. What Augustine wrote is this: Noliforas ire, in teipsumredi, in interiorehomine habitat veritas. (Do not go out, return to your self, in the interior man dwells the truth). You find this in De Vera Religione39, 72 (On the True Religion). This was written by the Saint sometime in 390, before his ordination to the priesthood and was dedicated to his benefactor Romanianus, who invited him to embrace the Catholic faith. The work, although it has Neo-platonic influence as you can notice in the quoted text, surpasses this philosophy since the invitation to return to the interior is not the fruit of philosophical effort, like that of the Neo-Platonists, but is a grace of God. This also reflects Augustine’s desire for interiority, the return to the heart, to avoid dispersion, which makes man lose the direction of his life. It is in the heart where man encounters the truth personified, Christ himself.

In this encounter, Christ, the Truth and Interior Teacher, instructs man in the way of salvation.