To Florus 1.45

What shining gold in a heap of dung! What could anyone, even an orthodox believer, have said more truly or more completely? “Sin”, you say, “is the will to commit or retain something justice forbids and from which one is free to abstain” (Augustine, On Two Souls 15). Ecclesiasticus shows this: “God made the human being and left him in the hands of his own decision. He placed before him life and death, water and fire; whatever pleases him will be given to him” (Sirach 15:14, 16–17; Vulgate 15:14, 17–18). And God says through Isaiah: “If you are willing and listen to me, you will eat the good things of the land. If you are unwilling and do not listen, the sword will devour you” (Isaiah 1:19–20). And the apostle: “Come rightly to your senses, and do not sin” (1 Corinthians 15:34). And again: “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked. Whatever a person sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7–8).