the soul lives by avoiding what it dies by affecting.
 Saint Augustine, Confessions (401). copy citation

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Author Saint Augustine
Source Confessions
Topic soul living
Date 401
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by E. B. Pusey
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3296/3296-h/3296-h.htm

Context

“For thus do men hear, so as not to hear only, but to do also. Seek the Lord, and your soul shall live, that the earth may bring forth the living soul. Be not conformed to the world. Contain yourselves from it: the soul lives by avoiding what it dies by affecting. Contain yourselves from the ungoverned wildness of pride, the sluggish voluptuousness of luxury, and the false name of knowledge: that so the wild beasts may be tamed, the cattle broken to the yoke, the serpents, harmless.” source