Sin

Sin is the disorder of the soul: to act unjustly is not merely to wrong another but to corrupt oneself, and the tyrant who does what he wishes is the most wretched of men.

Pride is the root of all sin; the will turned from God toward itself generates the disorder from which every particular transgression flows, and only grace can heal what nature cannot.

Sin is an act contrary to the eternal law: mortal sin destroys charity and turns the soul entirely from its last end, while venial sin disorders the soul without severing it from God.

Love is the root of every sin and every virtue: misdirected, excessive, or deficient love generates each category of transgression, and Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise are love's possible destinations.

Satan's pride is the archetypal sin; Adam's fall is an act of disordered love; and God's justice is vindicated precisely because the freedom that makes sin possible is also what makes virtue real.

Original sin is the only doctrine that explains the human condition in full: it accounts for both our greatness, which exceeds the animal, and our wretchedness, which exceeds it further still.

Guilt is not the residue of actual wrongdoing but the price of civilization: the super-ego turns aggression inward, and the more virtuous the individual becomes, the more the conscience torments.