“Considering the kind of men who were set up as models for me to imitate, it is no wonder that I was swept away into vanities and that I went out of Thy presence, my God ….How one must condemn the river of human custom! Who can stand firm against it? When will it ever dry up? How long will it continue to sweep the sons of Eve into that huge and fearful ocean which can scarcely be passed even by those who have the mark of the Cross upon their sails?”
(St Augustine writing on the pressures of secular society on his youth)