augustine

"yet, lord, i must give thanks to you, the most excellent and supremely good creator and governor of the universe, my god, even though by your will i was merely a child. for at that time i existed, i lived and thought and took care for my self-preservation. an inward instinct told me to take care of the integrity of my senses, and even in my little thoughts about little matters i took delight in the truth. i hated to be deceived, i developed a good memory, i acquired the armoury of being skilled with words, friendship softened me, i avoided pain, despondency, ignorance. in such a person what was not worthy of admiration and praise? but every one of these qualities are gifts of my god: i did not give them to myself. they are good qualities, and their totality is my self. therefore he who made me is good, and he is my good, and i exult to him, for all the good things that i was even as a boy. my sin consisted in this, that i sought pleasure, sublimity, and truth not in god but in his creatures, in myself and other created beings. so it was that i plunged into miseries, confusions, and errors. my god, i give my thanks to you, my source of sweet delight, and my glory and my confidence. i thank you for your gifts. keep them for me, for in this way you will keep me. the talents you have given will increase and be perfected, and i will be with you since it was your gift to me that i exist."

~confession of st. augustine, book I