Augustine and Disorder: Birth of a Misquote
[Sunday Trivia: Anagrams: each answer will be a pair of words that can be made by rearranging the letters in each other (like “STOP/POST”)
One is a broad category of animal that includes diamondbacks, while the other is a present-tense verb that means to feel regret, seek forgiveness.
One word can mean to take action to respond or oppose; the other means “to beat severely, thrash.”
Japan’s current capital city, and its former one, are these anagrams of each other.
One word refers to a company of travelers going through hostile territory; the other is a car retailer based in Arizona and founded in 2012.
Of the 7 English names for the days of the week, only one has a valid English anagram—this day of the week, and this anagram thereof.
]
Back in July, I wrote about a quote attributed to Augustine that has made the rounds. The quotable line is “The punishment of every disordered mind is its own disorder,” and people quote this without specifically locating it in any work or passage of Augustine’s (I even found a publishing company doing as much).
This is genuine Augustine. At the very least, it’s a loose-but-acceptable rendering of a line from the Confessions. Namely, I discovered from my searching:
I did trace it, though, to the end of the paragraph numbered as I.12.19. In the original, “iussisti enim et sic est, ut poena sua sibi sit omnis inordinatus animus.” This has been rendered as “For it is even as thou [God] hast ordained: that every inordinate affection brings on its own punishment.” Alternatively, “For Thou hast commanded, and so it is, that every inordinate affection should be its own punishment.”
In particular, the idea that the internal status is its own punishment (“poena sua sibi sit”) is authentically Augustinian. The dicier part of the line is the grammatical subject: Inordinate affection? Disordered mind? Those are two very different ideas in English, either of which might have been intended with those Latin words (and I don’t have a confident opinion on the best way to render it).
Now, I was inspired to pin this quote down, like a butterfly, thanks to an expanded version that I had come across online. Intriguingly, so far as I can tell, that expanded version with a novel invention—it was a fabrication, and one that had only just seen the light of day. But since then it seems to have started propagating.
To reiterate what we know: this popular line of Augustine’s is from Confessions I.12.19. But then you’ve got this:
Now, if we continue that part of the Confessions, we don’t find those words. We read,
Thus by the instrumentality of those who did not do well, thou didst well for me; and by my own sin thou didst justly punish me. For it is even as thou hast ordained: that every inordinate affection brings on its own punishment.
CHAPTER XIII
20. But what were the causes for my strong dislike of Greek literature, which I studied from my boyhood? Even to this day I have not fully understood them. For Latin I loved exceedingly--not just the rudiments, but what the grammarians teach. For those beginner's lessons in reading, writing, and reckoning, I considered no less a burden and pain than Greek.
So it’s not from here. And frankly, Google searching for the other new components of this quote turns up very little, all of it postdating that July 14, 2024 post. Small wonder it’s been reproduced by some, given the initial post notched more than half a million views.
I feel like I’m watching a future misattribution become coined in real time. Because, don’t let the eggshell-and-highlighted image fool you, the image is not from a book. It’s just a screencap with zero material identifying where it actually came from.
Because people will just assume that you’re telling the truth, especially if it sounds plausible and you don’t have an obvious motive for lying. Which is probably how this unsourced line was already confidently quoted and attributed by someone else on Substack.
Realistically, it’s impractical to source-check everything we ever want to incorporate into our understanding of the world. Failing that, it would at least be nice if people who publish their words bother to source it, although even that is a stretch. (I’m reminded of December 2022 when I looked at all the journalists calling Elon Musk a “free speech absolutist” and decided to ferret out where he had actually called himself this, since none of them bothered to provide a source for it.) If nothing else, then, it’s helpful to write it down and remember about reading on the Internet.
~
Answer:
One is a broad category of animal that includes diamondbacks, while the other is a present-tense verb that means to feel regret, seek forgiveness: SERPENT/REPENTS
One word can mean to take action to respond or oppose; the other means “to beat severely, thrash.”: COUNTER/TROUNCE
Japan’s current capital city, and its former one, are these anagrams of each other: TOKYO/KYOTO
One word refers to a company of travelers going through hostile territory; the other is a car retailer based in Arizona and founded in 2012: CARAVAN/CARVANA
Of the 7 English names for the days of the week, only one has a valid English anagram—this day of the week, and this anagram thereof: MONDAY/DYNAMO