========================================================================
  CONFESSIONS - BOOK VIII - CHAPTER VII
  by St. Augustine
========================================================================

------------------------------------------------------------------------
DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENT
------------------------------------------------------------------------

16. Such was the story Ponticianus told. But while he was speaking,
thou, O Lord, turned me toward myself, taking me from behind my back,
where I had put myself while unwilling to exercise self-scrutiny. And
now thou didst set me face to face with myself, that I might see how
ugly I was, and how crooked and sordid, bespotted and ulcerous. And I
looked and I loathed myself; but whither to fly from myself I could not
discover. And if I sought to turn my gaze away from myself, he would
continue his narrative, and thou wouldst oppose me to myself and thrust
me before my own eyes that I might discover my iniquity and hate it. I
had known it, but acted as though I knew it not--I winked at it and
forgot it.

17. But now, the more ardently I loved those whose wholesome affections
I heard reported--that they had given themselves up wholly to thee to be
cured--the more did I abhor myself when compared with them. For many of
my years--perhaps twelve--had passed away since my nineteenth, when,
upon the reading of Cicero\\

========================================================================
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/st-augustine/confessions-book-viii-chapter-vii/
========================================================================