But there comes a time when we know that something is missing. And when this time comes, we need to know where to turn. Often, I will suggest, we should turn to Augustine himself. Without too much exaggeration it might be said that the first step in the intellectual life after we are in our thirties is surely to read or reread Augustine’s Confessions. We will find there that, so often, our hearts are led astray because our minds were first deflected from the good and we chose to let them be so deflected. When we know this, we can again take another look at what is and realize that we did not make it, but it made us.
–James V. Schall, Another Sort of Learning: Selected Contrary Essays…, 11-12
