Lactantius: He Who Does Not Hate the
Wicked Does Not Love the Good
“For if God is not angry with the impious and the unrighteous, it is clear that He does not love the pious and the righteous. Therefore the error of those is more consistent who take away at once both anger and kindness. For in opposite matters it is necessary to be moved to both sides or to neither. Thus, he who loves the good also hates the wicked, and he who does not hate the wicked does not love the good; because the loving of the good arises from the hatred of the wicked, and the hating of the wicked has its rise from the love of the good. There is no one who loves life without a hatred of death, nor who is desirous of light, but he who avoids darkness. These things are so connected by nature that the one cannot exist without the other.”
— Lactantius (250–325), De Ira Dei
I really like this quote and have added it to my database! Here’s one I think is a good companion:
“Sentimental love does not unite people, but divides them. In fact, if each person, following the rule of subjective morality, left others to their own devices, caring only about their own moral sinlessness, then there would arise not a brotherly unity, but the scattering of passive atoms, each to himself and for himself, into a self-sufficient process of moralizing self-affection.” p. 78.
“Spiritual love is not only a religious devotion, but at its core it is primarily a clear-sighted, living, substantive choice. If we understand love, not in the sense of a sentimental pointless emotion, but in terms of its substantive definitude and functional totality … it is clear that it is impossible to truly love everything … or all things equally. … Of course, if by love one only understands benevolence, then … the religiously enlightened person loves everyone insofar as he desires the good of everyone. … [But] no one is called to love evil as such or an evil person as such.” p. 121.
Ivan Ilyin, ‘On Resistance to Evil by Force’, trans. K. Benois