Against Celsus 4.66

Then, as one who could say something more secret about the origin of evils but keeps silent about it and says what suits the multitude, he says that it is enough to say to the multitude about the origin of evils that "evils do not come from God, but cleave to matter and dwell among mortals." It is true, then, that evils do not come from God; for according to our Jeremiah too it is plain that "out of the mouth of the Lord shall not come evil things and the good." But that matter dwelling among mortals is the cause of evils is not true in our view. For the ruling faculty of each person is the cause of the vice that exists in it, which is evil; and the actions that come from it are evils too. And nothing else, in our view, strictly speaking, is evil. But I know that this subject needs much working out and argument, which can come, by the grace of God who enlightens the ruling faculty, to the one judged by God worthy of knowledge on this topic as well.