For pride is the beginning of sin, and he that has it shall pour out abomination: and therefore the Lord brought upon them strange calamities, and overthrew them utterly.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
"The gate of hell" means the beginning of sin because it is written, "The wages of sin is death," and to say "death" is equivalent to saying "hell." The Scripture also explains what constitutes the beginning of sin: "The beginning of every sin is pride." Therefore pride is the gate of hell. When one inquires concerning the causes that have produced heresies, one sees that they were born from pride because pride pushes people, in the end, toward heresies and schisms when they boast of their abilities and their holiness with the goal of attracting people to themselves but with the result of detaching them from Christ. But all heresies and schisms derive from these children of pride who will not overcome the catholic church, as it was precisely foretold, "The gates of hell will not prevail against it." - "Sermon 346/B.3"
A person looks around him with vigilance and care. He examines his thoughts; bringing back to mind the life of his audience, he humbles himself and does his best in every way because then pride does not pop up in the mind in order to dominate him with its deeds. That is why it is written, "The beginning of all sin is pride." What, then, shall be the fruit of good work before the eyes of God, if it is corrupted from the root by pride? Often " his soul is tempted by anger, but looking around him, he immediately composes himself within and, submitting himself to discipline, acts thus so that the movement of the soul does not pass into words, does not explode into voice. And so it happens that the anger of the agitated soul dies, suffocated by reason, where it would otherwise rise through negligence. And so it happens that from a fault conceived, the soul gives birth to virtue, since although he did not know how to persistently keep watch so that the movement would not arise, he neverthele...
Who could say anything clearer or of more value? "Pride is the beginning," it says, not simply of some but "of every sin," in order to emphasize how pride is, in itself, the cause of all sins. Not only is it in itself sin, but also no sin could have been, can be or ever will be committed without pride. Every sin, in effect, is nothing other than contempt of God, leading one to trample on his commandments. And what, other than pride, inspires people to this contempt? Indeed, in the devil it showed itself to be the cause of eternal damnation, and from the angel that he was he became (precisely) the devil. And it was he who, knowing that he was cast out of heaven for the sin of pride and banished to this dark prison, and corrupting the one whom God had created innocent, with serpentine cunning he insinuated the vice of pride in humankind. He was certain that once pride, the root of every evil, was accepted, the man would then easily commit all sins, which germinate only in the proud soul....
