Chapter Four - How to Discover Whether We Distrust Ourselves and Place Our Confidence in God

- If a man yields to anger and despairs of advancing in the way of virtue, it is evident that he places his confidence in himself and not in God. The greater the anxiety and despondence, the greater is the certainty of his guilt.
- The man who has a deep distrust of himself and places great  confidence in God is not at all surprised if he commits a fault. He does not abandon himself to confused despair; he correctly attributes what has happened to his own weakness and lack of confidence in God.
- He detests beyond all things the sin into which he has fallen; he condemns the passion or criminal habit that occasioned his fall; he conceives a deep sorrow for his offense against God.
- I sincerely wish that what has been proposed here would be attentively considered by many who think they are very devout.