'The human ideal of continence, I mean that which is
set forth by Greek philosophers, teaches that one should fight desire
and not be subservient to it so as to bring it to practical effect. But
our ideal is not to experience desire at all. Our aim is not that while a
man feels desire he should get the better of it, but that he should be
continent even respecting desire itself. This chastity cannot be
attained in any other way except by God's grace. That was why he said
"Ask and it shall be given you." This grace was received even by Moses,
though clothed in his needy body, so that for forty days he felt neither
thirst nor hunger. Just as it is better to be in good health than for a
sick man to talk about health, so to be light is better than to discuss
light, and true chastity is better than that taught by the
philosophers. Where there is light there is no darkness. But where there
is inward desire, even if it goes no further than desire and is
quiescent so far as bodily action is concerned, union takes place in
thought with the object of desire, although that object is not present.'
