The Killer Is Punished for What He Meant

We are talking about the actual qualities of things good and bad, and of what we call indifferent, not about the characters of the people who do these things. Nor ought any bad or wicked man to go unpunished because his evil deed could not harm a good man. For the endurance and goodness of a righteous man are of no profit to the one who causes his death or suffering, but only to the one who patiently endures what is done to him. And so the one is justly punished for his savage cruelty, because he meant to injure him. The other nevertheless suffers no evil, because in the goodness of his heart he patiently endures his trial and sufferings, and so makes all the things that were inflicted on him with evil intent turn out to his advantage and lead to the bliss of eternal life.