Conscience: As Adversary of Lusts

From Monachos Patristic Quotations Index

St Isaiah the Solitary

'The conscience is called an "adversary" because it opposes us when we wish to carry out the desires of our flesh; and if we do not listen to our conscience, it delivers us into the hands of our enemies.' (On Guarding the Intellect: Twenty-Seven Texts, 3; in the Philokalia, vol. i., p. 23.)