"We were sinning by writing or reading or studying less than our assigned lessons. For I did not, O Lord, lack memory …"

"I disobeyed them, not because I had chosen a better way, but from a sheer love of play. I loved the vanity of victory…"

"But why, then, did I dislike Greek learning, which was full of such tales? For Homer was skillful in inventing such p…"

"The Catholic faith, … I now realized could be maintained without presumption. This was especially true after I had he…"

"There was also a time when, as an infant, I knew no Latin; but this I acquired without any fear or tormenting, but me…"

"Woe unto you, O torrent of human custom! Who shall stay your course? When will you ever run dry? How long will you ca…"

"I do not blame the words [of fiction], for they are, as it were, choice and precious vessels, but I do deplore the wi…"

"What is it now to me, O my true Life, my God, that my declaiming was applauded above that of many of my classmates an…"

"I was delighted with Cicero’s exhortation, at least enough so that I was stimulated by it, and enkindled and inflamed…"

"O my God! What miseries and mockeries did I then experience when it was impressed on me that obedience to my teachers…"