“Even when the sufferings are alike, the sufferers remain unlike; and even when virtue and vice undergo the same torment, they are not themselves the same. In one and the same fire, gold glows red but chaff smokes; and under one and the same flail, straw is broken up but grain is separated out; nor is the oil mixed in with the dregs, even though it is extracted by the weight of the same press. By the same token, one and the same force, assailing the good, proves and purifies and cleanses them, but, assailing the evil, condemns and ruins and destroys them. Thus, under the same affliction, the evil detest and blaspheme God, but the good praise and pray to him. What is really important, then, is not the character of the suffering but rather the character of the sufferer.”

—St. Augustine, City of God