Key Arguments

• He identifies a single dominating motive in his search for delight: "The single desire that dominated my search for delight was simply to love and to be loved."
• He notes the absence of rational, mutual exchange characteristic of real friendship: "But no restraint was imposed by the exchange of mind with mind, which marks the brightly lit pathway of friendship."
• He describes his interior atmosphere as filled and obscured by sexual desire: "Clouds of muddy carnal concupiscence filled the air. The bubbling impulses of puberty befogged and obscured my heart so that it could not see the difference between love’s serenity and lust’s darkness."
• He emphasizes the confusion and compulsive force of these desires: "Confusion of the two things boiled within me. It seized hold of my youthful weakness sweeping me through the precipitous rocks of desire to submerge me in a whirlpool of vice."
• He interprets this state as occurring under God’s wrath, which he did not perceive because he was chained by mortal condition and pride: "Your wrath was heavy upon me and I was unaware of it. I had become deafened by the clanking chain of my mortal condition, the penalty of my pride."

Source Quotes

‘My beauty wasted away and in your sight I became putrid’ (Dan. 10: 8), by pleasing myself and by being ambitious to win human approval. ii (2) The single desire that dominated my search for delight was simply to love and to be loved. But no restraint was imposed by the exchange of mind with mind, which marks the brightly lit pathway of friendship.

10: 8), by pleasing myself and by being ambitious to win human approval. ii (2) The single desire that dominated my search for delight was simply to love and to be loved. But no restraint was imposed by the exchange of mind with mind, which marks the brightly lit pathway of friendship. Clouds of muddy carnal concupiscence filled the air.

But no restraint was imposed by the exchange of mind with mind, which marks the brightly lit pathway of friendship. Clouds of muddy carnal concupiscence filled the air. The bubbling impulses of puberty befogged and obscured my heart so that it could not see the difference between love’s serenity and lust’s darkness. Confusion of the two things boiled within me.

The bubbling impulses of puberty befogged and obscured my heart so that it could not see the difference between love’s serenity and lust’s darkness. Confusion of the two things boiled within me. It seized hold of my youthful weakness sweeping me through the precipitous rocks of desire to submerge me in a whirlpool of vice.2 Your wrath was heavy upon me and I was unaware of it. I had become deafened by the clanking chain3 of my mortal condition, the penalty of my pride.

It seized hold of my youthful weakness sweeping me through the precipitous rocks of desire to submerge me in a whirlpool of vice.2 Your wrath was heavy upon me and I was unaware of it. I had become deafened by the clanking chain3 of my mortal condition, the penalty of my pride. I travelled very far from you, and you did not stop me.

Key Concepts

• The single desire that dominated my search for delight was simply to love and to be loved.
• no restraint was imposed by the exchange of mind with mind, which marks the brightly lit pathway of friendship.
• Clouds of muddy carnal concupiscence filled the air. The bubbling impulses of puberty befogged and obscured my heart so that it could not see the difference between love’s serenity and lust’s darkness.
• Confusion of the two things boiled within me. It seized hold of my youthful weakness sweeping me through the precipitous rocks of desire to submerge me in a whirlpool of vice.
• I had become deafened by the clanking chain3 of my mortal condition, the penalty of my pride.

Context

Book II, section ii (2): Augustine analyzes his adolescent emotional and sexual life, distinguishing genuine friendship from lust and portraying his inner state as confused, compulsive, and under unperceived divine wrath.