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If we are unable to stop the desire for evil, then at least hating and being ashamed of it is not the last degree of piety (1). He who is far from evil suspects evil least of all (1). A vicious person is more likely to follow evil than to be held by good (1). It is not only beneficent deeds that give people a great reputation, but also evil deeds, when they do not find approval even from the vicious ones (1). He who gives in to evil with difficulty is slow and suspects evil (1). If you set the scales correctly and weigh everything that is pleasant and deplorable in life, then one cup, loaded to the top with evil, will go to the ground, and the other, on the contrary, with the blessings of life, will run upward. War, the sea, cultivation of the land, labor, robbers, the acquisition of property, inventories of estates, tax collectors, petitioners for cases, records, judges, an untruthful boss - all these are still children's toys in a difficult life. Look at the pleasantness of life: satiety, burden, singing, laughter, a coffin always filled with decayed dead; marriage gifts, marriage, second marriage if the first one is dissolved, adulterers, capture of adulterers; children - anxious grief; beauty is a false lure; ugliness is innocent evil; worries about good children, sadness about bad ones; wealth and poverty are pure evil, contempt, pride - all this is like a ball flying from hand to hand among young people. So, seeing, my heart is consumed if they consider that which has more evil than good to be better. Do you not cry when you hear how many sorrows there were among those who lived before us? However, I don’t know whether you will cry or laugh. The sages of antiquity found both decent for themselves... And whoever suffered and who prospered - everyone has nothing but a coffin (2). The evil have an advantage over the good; the guardians of the laws can be bought by either side. And if the evil one has more wealth, then he is the best. With such people, who can avoid many lies and intricacies without God’s help? For it is necessary either to flee headlong and leave everything evil, or to blacken one’s heart, just as one who approaches the evil breath of a destructive fire bears on himself the sad signs of either flame or smoke (2). You say a lot of bad things about me, my dear; and you do evil to yourself. For me, this reasoning serves as a cure for this trouble. If the great God favors you, then in another way he favors me. And if he is angry with you, then how much more severe will the judgment be (2)! Come to the truth, change your life before it’s too late, honor God more than you are used to! A change of life is not at all shameful, on the contrary, the storage of evil is disastrous (2). You might be interested in: