not the immorality of his act but the sheer meaninglessness of what he had done that struck him most forcefully. As he put it, “I loved my own sin, not because of what it gave me, but for the pleasure of sinning in itself.”12 This awareness led him to analyze what it is that makes people want to sin. His conclusion was that seldom (if ever) do we really believe that we shall gain anything from it, and when we see people committing crimes like murder, we are quick to condemn them for their folly.