“I desire the better, I follow the worse.”
– Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.20-21
“I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.”
– Paul, Romans 7.18-19
“Although he sees what is better for him, he is compelled to follow the worse.”
– Spinoza, Ethics IV pref.
D. L. Dusenbury 