““Frank's goals flow from his peculiar self-love. I say “peculiar” because every human being necessarily loves himself. One can't but love oneself, because one can't but will one's own good, and to love is to desire something as good. What makes Frank's self-love peculiar is that he places the summum bonum, the highest good, in himself. This is why Frank always instrumentalizes others to his own goals and interests. Frank's character should be understood as a radical existential challenge to St. Augustine's (354–430) critique of the libido dominandi, the lust for domination, because Frank holds forth his life as the one that is truly free. Augustine,””
![“Augustine reflects that “what made me a slave to it was the habit [consuetudo] of satisfying an insatiable lust.”31” quote by Elaine Pagels](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/c77/elaine-pagels-8423_habits_augustine-reflects-that-what-made-me-a-s_240814.jpg)
![“[H]e never ceased in his heroic and earnest endeavor to love them, to be just to them, to do them no harm, for the love of his neighbor was as deeply in him as the hatred of himself, and so his whole life was an example that love of one's neighbor is not possible without love of oneself, and that…” quote by Hermann Hesse](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e01/hermann-hesse-130_identity_h-e-never-ceased-in-his-heroic-and-earne_2106709.jpg)
