Augustine of Hippo, on Matt 19:16

“And behold one came and said to him: Good master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?”

“(Ep. 31, 5.) I know not how, but in the love of worldly superfluities, it is what we have already got, rather than what we desire to get, that most strictly enthrals us. For whence went this young man away sorrowful, but that he had great possessions? It is one thing to lay aside thoughts of further acquisition, and another to strip ourselves of what we have already made our own; one is only rejecting what is not ours, the other is like parting with one of our own limbs.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.