"...weeping at the death of Dido for love Aeneas but failing to weep at his own death for failing to love you, O God. You, O light of my heart; you, O bread of the depths of my soul; you, O power who gives vigor to my mind and rouses my thoughts; you I did not love. I was guilty of fornication against you and all around me, likewise fornicating, there echoed acclamations, 'Well done! Well done!' For the friendship of this world is fornication again you (see James 4:4), and the words 'Well done! Well done!' echo on and on, until one is ashamed not to be this sort of man." page 9
"I was amazed that I now no longer loved a mere phantom of you but, rather, you indeed. But I did not press onward to true enjoyment of you. Instead, I was lifted up to you by your beauty, all of a sudden being brought back down from you by my own weight, sinking with sorrow into these inferior things. Such was the weight of my carnal habits. Nonetheless, some memory of you dwelt within me, and I did not in any way doubt that there was One to whom I might cling, but that I was not yet in such a state as to cling to you. For the body that is corrupted presses down upon the soul, and the earthly dwelling weights down the mind that muses upon many things (see Wisdom 9:15). And I was most certain that, from the Creation of the world, your invisible works are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made, even to the point of knowing your eternal power and Godhead (see Romans 1:20). For I examined the source of my admiration for the beauty of heavenly and earthly bodies, I considered what helped me to judge correctly about mutable realities so that I could state, 'This ought to be this way, but that should not.' In other words, while so examining how it was that I judged things like this (for while so examining how it was that I judged things light this (for I did do this), I discovered the unchangeable and true eternity of truth above my own mutable mind." page 184
"And groaning, he is burdened (see 2 Corinthians 5:4), with his soul thirsting for the living God, as the deer longs for the streams of water, and he says, 'When shall I come there?' (see Psalm 42:1-2), desiring to be clothed with his dwelling place, which is in heaven (see 2 Corinthians 5:2). And calling upon these lower depths, he says, 'Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind'..." page 390
"And I say: O my God, where are you? Behold where you are! In you I breathe a little, when I pour my soul upon myself with a voice of joy and praise, the sound of him who partakes in a feast (see Psalm 42:4). And yet, it sorrows (see Psalm 42:5), because it falls back and becomes a depth, or rather perceives itself still to be a depth. Unto it speaks my faith, which you have kindled to enlighten my feet in the night: 'Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me?' His Word is a lantern for your feet. Hope and endure, until the night, the mother of the wicked, until the wrath of the Lord passes over. Once upon a time we also were children of wrath, we who were once darkness (see Ephesians 2:3), the relics of which we bear about us in our bodies, which are dead because of sin (see Romans 8:10) until the dawn breaks and the shadows fly away (see Song of Songs 2:17). Hope in the Lord." pages 391-392
"And you know, O Lord, you know how you clothed men with skins, when through there sin they became mortal (see Genesis 3:21). Therefore, you have stretched out like a skin the firmament of your book, that is, your harmonious words, which you spread over us by the ministry of mortal men." pages 392-393
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