The Enchiridion 6
6 Controversy Out of Place in a Handbook Like the Present PL 40, 233
Now you ask of me a handbook, that is, one that can be carried in the hand, not one to load your shelves. To return, then, to the three graces through which, as I have said, God should be worshipped—faith, hope, and love: to state what are the true and proper objects of each of these is easy. But to defend this true doctrine against the assaults of those who hold an opposite opinion, requires much fuller and more elaborate instruction. And the true way to obtain this instruction is not to have a short treatise put into one’s hands, but to have a great zeal kindled in one’s heart.
Quod mole exiguum possit manu contineri. Tu autem Enchiridion a nobis postulas, id est, quod manu possit astringi, non quod armaria possit onerare. Ut igitur ad illa tria redeamus, per quae diximus colendum Deum, fidem, spem, charitatem; facile est ut dicatur quid credendum, quid sperandum, quid amandum sit: sed quemadmodum adversus eorum qui diversa sentiunt calumnias defendatur, operosioris uberiorisque doctrinae est; quae ut habeatur, non brevi enchiridio manus debet impleri, sed grandi studio pectus accendi.