It is cursed also beyond all the wild beasts. By these I mean the passions of the soul, for by these the mind is wounded and destroyed, Why, then, is it accounted worse than the other passions? Because it is, we may say, at the bottom of them all, like a kind of starting-point and foundation. Lust comes into play through love of pleasure; pain arises as pleasure is withdrawn; fear again is engendered owing to a dread of being without pleasure. It is clear, then, that all the passions depend on pleasure, and these would perchance never have taken shape at all, if first there had not been deposited that which is productive of them, pleasure.
Allegorical Interpretation, Book III 37
Tap any verse to see what it echoes — and start a chain or echo from it.