Miscellanies 3.5.41

As, then, the one who has used his authority to live according to virtue is praiseworthy, so much more is the one who has given us authority, free and sovereign, and has allowed us to live as we wish, venerable and to be worshiped, since he did not allow our choices and avoidances to be slaves of necessity. And if each has freedom from fear, both the one who chose lack of self-control and the one who chose self-control, yet their dignity is not alike. For the one who has run aground on pleasures gratifies the body, but the self-restrained frees the soul, the mistress of the body, from the passions. Even if they say that we were called to freedom, only let us not give our freedom as an occasion to the flesh, according to the apostle. But if desire must be gratified and a shameful life considered indifferent, as they themselves say, then either we must obey the desires in everything, and, if so, do all the most licentious and unholy things, following what persuades us; or we will turn away from some desires, and then we must no longer live indifferently, nor be slaves without restraint to the most dishonorable parts of us, belly and genitals, which flatter our corpse because of desire. For desire is nourished and brought to life when it is served for enjoyment, just as, conversely, it withers when cut back.