I became evil for no reason. I had no motive for my wickedness except wickedness itself. It was foul, and I loved it. I loved the self-destruction, I… - Augustine of Hippo
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I became evil for no reason. I had no motive for my wickedness except wickedness itself. It was foul, and I loved it. I loved the self-destruction, I loved my fall, not the object for which I had fallen but my fall itself. My depraved soul leaped down from your firmament to ruin. I was seeking not to gain anything by shameful means, but shame for its own sake.
St. Augustine of Hippo (13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a Christian theologian, rhetor, North African bishop, Doctor of the Catholic Church, saint, and a philosopher influenced in his early years by Manichaeism and the Neo-Platonism of Plotinus.
Biography information from
Wikiquote·
Portrait adapted from
Wikimedia Commons, Philippe de Champaigne (Public domain / CC0)
Also Known As
Native Name:
Aurelius Augustinus
Alternative Names:
Saint Augustine
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Saint Austin
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Augustine
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St. Augoustinos
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St. Augustine of Hippo
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Aurelius Augustine
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Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis
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St. Augustine
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Augustinus
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Saint Augustine of Hippo
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Augustinus, Aurelius
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bishop of Hippo
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It was foul, and I loved it. I loved to perish. I loved my own — not that for which I erred, but the itself. Base, falling from Your firmament to utter destruction — not seeking anything through the shame but the shame itself!
As a youth I prayed, "Give me chastity and continence, but not right now."
But I was immobilized — less by another’s static imposition than by my own static will. For the enemy had in thrall my power to choose, which he had used to make a chain for binding me. From bad choices an urge arises; and the urge, yielded to, becomes a compulsion; and the compulsion, unresisted, becomes a slavery — each link in this process connected with the others, which is why I call it a chain — and that chain had a tyrannical grip around me. The new will I felt stirring in me, a will to 'give you free worship' and enjoy what I yearned for, my God, my only reliable happiness, could not break away from the will made strong by long dominance. Two wills were mine, old and new, of the flesh, of the spirit, each warring on the other, and between their dissonances was my soul disintegrating.
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