This state, which is brought about by the contemplation of God and the enjoyment of the gladness that follows it, has rightly been described as pleasure, passion, and joy. It is called pleasure, insofar as it is the consummation of all natural strivings (for this is the meaning of pleasure). It is called passion, insofar as it is an ecstatic power, elevating the passive recipient to the state of an active agent, as in the examples given above of air permeated by light, and iron suffused with fire. These examples, drawn from nature, demonstrate persuasively that there is no higher summit of transformation for created beings apart from that in which their natural elements remain inviolate. It is, finally, called joy for it encounters nothing opposed to it, for they say that joy neither remembers for mer sorrows, nor fears the possibility of any future satiety, in the way that pleasure fears the inevitable consequence of pain
— Ambiguum 7