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THEODORE: We are talking about the actual qualities of things good and
bad, and what we call indifferent; and not about the characters of the men
who do these things. Nor ought any bad or wicked man to go unpunished
because his evil deed was not able to do harm to a good man. For the
endurance and goodness of a righteous man are of no profit to the man who
is the cause of his death or suffering, but only to him who patiently
endures what is inflicted on him. And so the one is justly punished for
savage cruelty, because he meant to injure him, while the other
nevertheless suffers no evil, because in the goodness of his heart he
patiently endures his temptation and sufferings, and so causes all those
things, which were inflicted upon him with evil, intent, to turn out to his
advantage, and to conduce to the bliss of eternal life.
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