“Why do you perversely follow your flesh? Turn back, and let your flesh follow you. Whatever you perceive through her, you perceive in part. You do not know the whole, of which these are the parts; nevertheless, the parts give you pleasure. But if your fleshly sense were capable of comprehending the whole, and had not, being itself a part of the whole, been confined within its right and proper limit - that being a punishment proportionate to your crime - you would wish all that exists in the present to pass away, so that you could derive still more pleasure from the totality of things. The very words we speak you hear by means of the same carnal sense, and you do not wish the syllables to stand still but to pass away swiftly, so that others may come and you may hear the whole. Likewise all the constituent parts that make up one thing (even though they do not all simultaneously constitute it) give more pleasure as a totality than they do individually, if it is possible to perceive them as a totality. But he who made them is better by far than them all, and it is he that is our God, who does not pass away, nor does anything take his place.”
Quote by Augustine of Hippo
Book:Confessions
Work
Confessions
This work is a personal narrative by a renowned thinker, exploring his life, thoughts, and beliefs in a profound and introspective manner. more
Author
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