VI. Neither Is There Straitness with God, nor Anything That Is Not Absolutely Perfect.—From Manuscript of the Writings of Justin · VII. We Shall Not Injure God by Remaining Ignorant of Him, but Shall Deprive Ourselves of His Friendship
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The soul can with difficulty be recalled to those good things from which it has fallen, and is with difficulty dragged away from those evils to which it has become accustomed. If at any time thou showest a disposition to blame thyself, then perhaps, through the medicine of repentance, I should cherish good hopes regarding thee. But when thou altogether despisest fear, and rejectest with scorn the very faith of Christ, it were better for thee that thou hadst never been born from the womb.—From the writings of John of Damascus.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and A. Cleveland Coxe (1885–96). Public domain. Text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.