Letter 458
Isidore of Pelusium→Unknown|isidore pelusium
From: Isidore of Pelusium, monk at Pelusium
To: Zosimus
Date: ~410 AD
Context: A sharp aphorism on delayed judgment: the fact that punishment has not yet come does not mean it has been averted — it may only mean a worse reckoning is accumulating.
Do not mistake the delay of punishment for its cancellation, best of men. What your having not yet been called to account will bring you to is not escape — it is a harsher judgment, if you do not acknowledge your defeats and make amends for them while there is still time.
The judge who postpones a verdict has not dropped the case.
Περὶ κρίσεως. Οὐχ εἰς τὸ μὴ δοῦναι δίχην, ὦ βέλτιστε, ἀλλ᾽ εἰς τὸ δοῦναι ἀργαλεωτέραν, εἰ μὴ γνωσιμαχήσειας, χαὶ τὰς ἧττας πάσας ἀναμαχέσαιο, τὸ μηδέπω δοῦναι περιστήσεταί σοι.
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From: Isidore of Pelusium, monk at Pelusium
To: Zosimus
Date: ~410 AD
Context: A sharp aphorism on delayed judgment: the fact that punishment has not yet come does not mean it has been averted — it may only mean a worse reckoning is accumulating.
Do not mistake the delay of punishment for its cancellation, best of men. What your having not yet been called to account will bring you to is not escape — it is a harsher judgment, if you do not acknowledge your defeats and make amends for them while there is still time.
The judge who postpones a verdict has not dropped the case.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.