"Look down, O Lord God, and see patiently, as thou art wont to do, how diligently the sons of men observe the conventional rules of letters and syllables, taught them by those who learned their letters beforehand, while they neglect the eternal rules of everlasting salvation taught by thee. They carry it so far that if he who practices or teaches the established rules of pronunciation should speak (contrary to grammatical usage) without aspirating the first syllable of "hominem," he will offend men more than if he, a human being, were to hate another human being contrary to thy commandments. It is as if he should feel that there is an enemy who could be more destructive to himself than that hatred which excites him against his fellow man; or that he could destroy him whom he hates more completely than he destroys his own soul by this same hatred. Now, obviously, there is no knowledge of letters more innate than the writing of conscience—against doing unto another what one would not have done to himself."
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Book 1, Chapter 18, translated by A. Outler (Dover: 2002)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Confessions_(Augustine)
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Confessions (Augustine)
Confessions is an autobiographical work, consisting of 13 books, by Augustine of Hippo. It was written in Latin between AD 397 and 400.
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