The gifts are great, but without love the person is nothing
Augustine is answering an imagined objector who asks what the Donatists lack, since they have Christ's baptism and faith.
And what do they lack, someone says to me, who have these things? You say they have the baptism of Christ? I do. You say they have the faith of Christ? I do. So if they have these things, what do they lack? What is baptism? A sacrament. Listen to the apostle: If I know all sacraments. It is a great thing to know all the sacraments of God; however many sacraments we may know, who knows all the sacraments of God? What does the apostle say? If I know all sacraments, if I have all prophecy, add still more: and all knowledge. But you had spoken about faith. Listen further: if I have all faith. It is difficult to have all faith, just as it is difficult to know all sacraments. And what is it that he says: all faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing? Pay attention, brothers, pay attention, I beg you, to the apostle's voice, and see why we seek our brothers with such labors and dangers. Love seeks them from our hearts. For the sake of my brothers and my neighbors, the psalm says, I was speaking peace about you, speaking to holy Jerusalem. See then, my brothers, what the apostle said: If I have all sacraments, all knowledge, prophecy, faith—what kind of faith?—so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. He did not say: those things are nothing, but: if I do not have love, I am nothing. For who in his right mind would say: the sacraments of God are nothing? Who in his right mind would say: prophecy is nothing, knowledge is nothing, faith is nothing? Those things are not nothing, but when those things are great, I who have great things, if I do not have love, am nothing. Those things are great, and I have great things, and I am nothing if I do not have love, through which the great things I have benefit me. For if I do not have love, those things can be in me, but they cannot benefit me.
Latin
Et quid non habent, ait mihi aliquis, qui haec habent? tu dicis: habent baptismum Christi? dico. tu dicis: habent fidem Christi? dico. si ergo haec habent, quid non habent? quid est baptismus? sacramentum. audi apostolum: si sciero omnia sacramenta. multum est scire omnia dei sacramenta; quantacumque sciamus sacramenta, quis nouit dei omnia sacramenta? quid ait apostolus? si sciero omnia sacramenta, si habeam omnem prophetiam, adde adhuc: et omnem scientiam. (sed de fide dixeras). audi adhuc: si habeam omnem fidem. difficile est habere omnem fidem, quomodo difficile est noscere omnia sacramenta. et quid est quod dicit: (omnem) ita ut montes transferam, caritatem autem non habeam, nihil sum? intendite, fratres, intendite, obsecro uos, apostoli uocem et uidete, quare cum tantis laboribus et periculis fratres nostros quaeramus. caritas eos quaerit de cordibus nostris. propter fratres meos et propinquos meos, dicit psalmus, loquebar pacem de te, ad sanctam Hierusalem loquens. uidete ergo, fratres mei, quid dixit apostolus: si habuero omnia sacramenta, omnem scientiam, prophetiam, fidem — qualem fidem? — ita ut montes transferam, caritatem autem non habeam, nihil sum. non dixit: illa omnia nihil sunt,' sed: si caritatem non habeam, nihil sum. quis enim demens diceret: nihil sunt dei sacramenta? quis demens diceret: nihil est prophetia, nihil scientia, nihil fides? non illa nihil sunt, sed cum illa magna sint, ego magna habens si caritatem non habeam, nihil sum. magna illa sunt et magna habeo et nihil sum, si caritatem non habeo, per quam mihi prosunt quae magna sunt. si enim non habeo caritatem, illa inesse possunt, prodesse non possunt.