St. John of the Cross on the Blindness Caused by Appetites

[NB: The Saint here, by appetites, means disordered affection or love for creatures, even of the smallest degree.]

"Oh, who can tell how impossible it is for a person with appetites to judge the things of God as they are! If there is to be success in judging the things of God, the appetites and satisfactions must be totally rejected, and these things of God must be weighed apart from them. For otherwise one will infallibly come to consider the things of God as not of God, and the things that are not of God as of God."

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Source: St. John of the Cross, The Living Flame of Love, trans. K. Kavanaugh and O. Rodriguez, 3.73.