What we call bad things are good things perverted (De Civ. Dei, XIV, 11). This perversion arises when a conscious creature becomes more interested in itself than in God (ibid. XIV, 11), and wishes to exist ‘on its own’ (esse in semet ipso, XIV, 13). This is the sin of Pride. The first creature who ever committed it was Satan ‘the proud angel who turned from God to himself, not wishing to be a subject, but to rejoice like a tyrant in having subjects of his own’ (XIV, 11).
