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Who fain would sow the fallow field,
And see the growing corn,
Must first remove the useless weeds,
The bramble and the thorn.

— Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius

Qui serere ingenuum uolet agrum
liberat arua prius fruticibus,
falce rubos filicemque resecat,
ut noua fruge grauis Ceres eat.

Original text (Latin)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Poem I, lines 1-4; translation by H. R. James

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I see how happiness and misery lie inseparably in the deserts of good and bad men.

Wherefore not without cause has one of your own followers asked, "If God is, whence come evil things? If He is not, whence come good?"

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.