Key Arguments

• He recalls that within his peer group he was ashamed not to match others’ ‘shameful behaviour’: "I went on my way headlong with such blindness that among my peer group I was ashamed not to be equally guilty of shameful behaviour when I heard them boasting of their sexual exploits."
• He notes their perverse pride both in the acts and in the admiration they provoked: "Their pride was the more aggressive, the more debauched their acts were; they derived pleasure not merely from the lust of the act but also from the admiration it evoked."
• He judges vice to be the most censure‑worthy thing, highlighting the perversity of this honour system: "What is more worthy of censure than vice?"
• He confesses that to avoid contempt, he sank deeper into vice and even lied about sins, preferring a reputation for wickedness over being thought chaste: "Yet I went deeper into vice to avoid being despised, and when there was no act by admitting to which I could rival my depraved companions, I used to pretend I had done things I had not done at all, so that my innocence should not lead my companions to scorn my lack of courage, and lest my chastity be taken as a mark of inferiority."

Source Quotes

115: 16). But I did not realize this and went on my way headlong with such blindness that among my peer group I was ashamed not to be equally guilty of shameful behaviour when I heard them boasting of their sexual exploits. Their pride was the more aggressive, the more debauched their acts were; they derived pleasure not merely from the lust of the act but also from the admiration it evoked.

But I did not realize this and went on my way headlong with such blindness that among my peer group I was ashamed not to be equally guilty of shameful behaviour when I heard them boasting of their sexual exploits. Their pride was the more aggressive, the more debauched their acts were; they derived pleasure not merely from the lust of the act but also from the admiration it evoked. What is more worthy of censure than vice?

Their pride was the more aggressive, the more debauched their acts were; they derived pleasure not merely from the lust of the act but also from the admiration it evoked. What is more worthy of censure than vice? Yet I went deeper into vice to avoid being despised, and when there was no act by admitting to which I could rival my depraved companions, I used to pretend I had done things I had not done at all, so that my innocence should not lead my companions to scorn my lack of courage, and lest my chastity be taken as a mark of inferiority.9 (8) Such were the companions with whom I made my way through the streets of Babylon.10 With them I rolled in its dung as if rolling in spices and precious ointments (S. of S.

What is more worthy of censure than vice? Yet I went deeper into vice to avoid being despised, and when there was no act by admitting to which I could rival my depraved companions, I used to pretend I had done things I had not done at all, so that my innocence should not lead my companions to scorn my lack of courage, and lest my chastity be taken as a mark of inferiority.9 (8) Such were the companions with whom I made my way through the streets of Babylon.10 With them I rolled in its dung as if rolling in spices and precious ointments (S. of S. 5.

Key Concepts

• among my peer group I was ashamed not to be equally guilty of shameful behaviour when I heard them boasting of their sexual exploits.
• Their pride was the more aggressive, the more debauched their acts were; they derived pleasure not merely from the lust of the act but also from the admiration it evoked.
• What is more worthy of censure than vice?
• I used to pretend I had done things I had not done at all, so that my innocence should not lead my companions to scorn my lack of courage, and lest my chastity be taken as a mark of inferiority.

Context

Book II, section iii (7): Augustine reflects on the corrupting effect of adolescent peer groups and honour codes that glorify sexual debauchery, revealing how the fear of contempt can push someone to embrace and even fabricate vice.