A card from a free library — ask anything, no account, works offline. Every card carries its source.
Augustine, Confessions §aug_conf_02_009: Theft is punished by Thy law, O Lord, and the law written in the hearts of me...
augustine confessions
Theft is punished by Thy law, O Lord, and the law written in the hearts of men, which iniquity itself effaces not. For what thief will abide a thief? not even a rich thief, one stealing through want. Yet I lusted to thieve, and did it, compelled by no hunger, nor poverty, but through a cloyedness of well-doing, and a pamperedness of iniquity. For I stole that, of which I had enough, and much better. Nor cared I to enjoy what I stole, but joyed in the theft and sin itself. A pear tree there was near our vineyard, laden with fruit, tempting neither for colour nor taste. To shake and rob this, some lewd young fellows of us went, late one night (having according to our pestilent custom prolonged our sports in the streets till then), and took huge loads, not for our eating, but to fling to the very hogs, having only tasted them. And this, but to do what we liked only, because it was misliked. Behold my heart, O God, behold my heart, which Thou hadst pity upon in the bottom of the bottomless pit. Now, behold, let my heart tell Thee what it sought there, that I should be gratuitously evil, having no temptation to ill, but the ill itself. It was foul, and I loved it; I loved to perish, I loved mine own fault, not that for which I was faulty, but my fault itself. Foul soul, falling from Thy firmament to utter destruction; not seeking aught through the shame, but the shame itself!
- same section → Augustine, Confessions §aug_conf_12_027: For true it is, O Lord, that Thou madest heaven and earth; and it is true too...
- same section → Augustine, Confessions §aug_conf_12_015: These things considered, as much as Thou givest, O my God, as much as Thou st...
- on the shelf of → The classics — the great books, kept whole — a member of the classics shelf in the keeping
Is this card incomplete? Tell the library — it will call out for more ↗