Poet and Priest

Trilemma

Bear no malice nor ill-will to any man living, for either the man is good, or naught:

if he be good, and I hate him, then am I naught;
if he be naught, either he shall amend, and die good, and go to God;
or abide naught, and die naught, and so be lost.

2 … If he be saved, he shall not fail, if I be saved too, as I trust to be, to love me very heartily, and I shall then love him likewise. And why, then, should I now hate one, who shall hereafter love me for evermore? and why should I now be an enemy to him, with whom I shall, in time coming, be coupled in eternal friendship? —

3 … On the other side, if he shall continue naught and be lost, that is so terrible and eternal a sorrow to him, that I should think myself a cruel wretch, if I did not now rather pity his pain, than malign his person.

— Sir Thomas More, 1534

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