Confessions Suffering Quotes

This little line has a cameo in T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland": "but Thou pluckest me out, O Lord, Thou pluckest me out" (from the Edward Bouverie Pusey translation, which likes the word "Thou" a lot more). Right before this line, Augustine says that even though he has a pretty good notion of what things to avoid, this world is still full of snares. This really frames Augustine as an innocent bystander, doesn't it? And if sinning is something that we can't always stop ourselves from doing, well, no one knows more about that than Augustine. The point here is that our salvation doesn't lie within ourselves and our own self-discipline, but in God's sheer mercy. Better not take too much credit for anything you do, boys and girls. God's on it.