Calvin Quote

"Because nothing appears in us or around us that has not been contaminated by great immorality, what is a little less vile pleases us as a thing most pure--so long as we continue our minds within the limits of human corruption....So it happens in estimating our spiritual goods. As long as we do not look beyond the earth, being quite content with our own righteousness, wisdom, and virtue, we flatter ourselves most sweetly, and fancy ourselves all but demigods...Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty" (Calvin, Institutes Bk. I Pg. 38-39).