Choose a topic from Part 2B:
1. Boasting is the making of false claims in praise ofone's own qualities or prowess; it is an attempt to liftoneself above what one really is. Boasting amounts to excessive andunjustified claims; and these, in turn, amount to lying. Hence,boasting has the evil of lying.
2. Boasting usually amounts to a jocose lie. It is so inthe case of a man who 'likes to hear himself talk," andwho delights in bragging for its own sake. Or it may be anofficious lie, as it is in a person who recommends himself for aposition by making excessive claims of ability. In most cases,boasting does not exceed venial sin.
"Try to turn your heart from the love of things visible and bring yourself to things invisible. For they who follow their own evil passions stain their consciences and lose the grace of God.
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Thomas á Kempis
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"Lord, here burn, here cut, and dry up in me all that hinders me from going to You, that You may spare me in eternity."
St Louis Bertrand
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"Shun too great a desire for knowledge, for in it there is much fretting and delusion. Intellectuals like to appear learned and to be called wise. Yet there are many things the knowledge of which does little or no good to the soul, and he who concerns himself about other things than those which lead to salvation is very unwise.
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Thomas á Kempis
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