Strictly speaking, one should not even rightly compare virginity to marriage because you cannot make a comparison between two things if one is good and the other evil.
St. JeromeRead
I am that prodigal son who wasted all the portion entrusted to me by my father. But I have not yet fallen at my father's knees. I have not yet begun to put away from me the enticements of my former riotous living.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the struggle of personal redemption and the acknowledgment of one's past mistakes.
St. Jerome's quote draws upon the biblical allegory of the prodigal son, symbolizing a journey of self-realization and the internal conflict of acknowledging past errors while resisting the temptations of a former, hedonistic lifestyle. It emphasizes the importance of recognizing one's shortcomings and the gradual process of seeking forgiveness and change.
Themes
RedemptionRepentanceSelf-AwarenessForgivenessTemptation
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can inspire personal reflections during a motivational speech about overcoming past mistakes.
More from St. Jerome
All quotes →Thank God I am deemed worthy to be hated by the world.
St. JeromeRead
The Church was founded upon Peter: although elsewhere the same is attributed to all the Apostles, and they all receive the keys of the kingdom of heaven, the strength of the Church depends upon them all alike, yet one among the twelve is chosen so that when a head has been appointed, there may be no occasion for schism.
St. JeromeRead
Either we must speak as we dress, or dress as we speak. Why do we profess one thing and display another? The tongue talks of chastity, but the whole body reveals impurity.
St. JeromeRead
Beauty when unadorned is adorned the most.
St. JeromeRead
To ignore Scripture is to ignore Christ.
St. JeromeRead
Similar quotes
The State, on the other hand, both in its genesis and by its primary intention, is purely anti-social. It is not based on the idea of natural rights, but on the idea that the individual has no rights except those that the State may provisionally grant him. It has always made justice costly and difficult of access, and has invariably held itself above justice and common morality whenever it could advantage itself by so doing.
Albert J. NockRead
But we do now receive a certain portion of His Spirit, tending towards perfection, and preparing us for incorruption, being little by little accustomed to receive and bear God
Irenaeus Of LyonsRead
We have to have powder for our wigs; that is why so many poor people have no bread.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
I cannot too often repeat that Democracy is a word the real gist of which still sleeps, quite unawakened, notwithstanding the resonance and the many angry tempests out of which its syllables have come, from pen or tongue. It is a great word, whose history, I suppose, remains unwritten because that history has yet to be enacted.
Walt WhitmanRead
Meditation, then, is not so much a part of this or that particular religion, but rather part of the universal spiritual culture of all humankind--an effort to bring awareness to bear on all aspects of life. It is, in other words, part of what has been called the perennial philosophy.
Ken WilberRead
I discovered when we suffer, we suffer as equals. And in their capacity to suffer, a dog is a pig, is a bear...is a boy.
Philip WollenRead