The Consolation of Philosophy

by Boethius

From this, the converse follows, that cursed men likewise seem to be deserted by all power. For why do they abandon virtue and go after vices? Isn’t it from ignorance of the good? But what is feebler than the blindness of ignorance? What if they do know what things they should pursue, but desire casts them down from the path? Then they are frail from their intemperance, since they cannot fight against vice. Do they knowingly and willingly abandon the good and turn to vices? But in that case, they not only cease to be powerful but cease to be altogether; for those who relinquish the common end of everything that exists cease thereby to be. “To some, it would seem amazing indeed that we would say evil men—a large share of humanity—do not exist, but that is just how things are. Now I do not deny that evil people are evil. What I deny is that they exist, in a pure and simple sense. I the same way that you would say a corpse is a ‘dead man,’ but could not simply call it a ‘man,’ I would grant that vicious men ‘are evil,’ but I cannot admit that they ‘are,’ absolutely.