To Florus 4.67

The genitals of both sexes are named as freely as feet and knees. Yet even with this authority supporting me, I have not neglected the aids of more modest speech. Neglect of decency without any compulsion from the subject lies open to the most just criticism. Decency should be maintained in words no less than in actions, as far as the subject allows. Natural desire, then, could not be convicted by the reproach of shame and has been defended by its Creator’s dignity. The purpose was not to treat it as some great good, since it is shared by human beings and animals, but as a necessary instrument of the sexes: rescued from the demons’ jurisdiction and placed among the works of the one who made the world and bodies. No one accuses it except Manichaeus and his heir, the advocate of inherited sin. It is therefore evident that the entire fiction of natural sin has vanished, since its whole support depended on accusations against nature.