"One is punished by the very things by which he sins"
About this Quote
Sin doesn’t just earn a penalty; it manufactures one. Solomon Ibn Gabirol’s line lands with the cool inevitability of a moral boomerang: the instrument of transgression becomes the instrument of consequence. It’s not a courtroom vision of justice, with an external judge and a delayed sentence. It’s closer to a psychological and spiritual physics, where cause and effect live inside the same act.
That’s a poet’s move, not a legislator’s. The phrasing tightens around “the very things,” insisting on specificity. Not “sin leads to punishment,” but the chosen object, habit, or appetite turns punitive from within. Greed hollows satisfaction into hunger. Vanity turns the mirror into a tribunal. Cruelty breeds the isolation it claims to prefer. The sting is that you don’t need God to intervene dramatically; the world you shape while “sinning” becomes the world that punishes you.
Context matters: Ibn Gabirol wrote in medieval al-Andalus, a milieu where Jewish philosophy and poetry braided ethics with metaphysics. His work often treats the soul as something structured, with an inner order that can be violated. In that frame, vice is less a naughty exception than a misalignment that degrades the self. The subtext is stern but practical: if you want to predict your future suffering, look at what you’re using to feel powerful right now.
The line’s endurance comes from its refusal to flatter. It implies agency, then traps you in its consequences. The punishment isn’t merely deserved; it’s intimate.
That’s a poet’s move, not a legislator’s. The phrasing tightens around “the very things,” insisting on specificity. Not “sin leads to punishment,” but the chosen object, habit, or appetite turns punitive from within. Greed hollows satisfaction into hunger. Vanity turns the mirror into a tribunal. Cruelty breeds the isolation it claims to prefer. The sting is that you don’t need God to intervene dramatically; the world you shape while “sinning” becomes the world that punishes you.
Context matters: Ibn Gabirol wrote in medieval al-Andalus, a milieu where Jewish philosophy and poetry braided ethics with metaphysics. His work often treats the soul as something structured, with an inner order that can be violated. In that frame, vice is less a naughty exception than a misalignment that degrades the self. The subtext is stern but practical: if you want to predict your future suffering, look at what you’re using to feel powerful right now.
The line’s endurance comes from its refusal to flatter. It implies agency, then traps you in its consequences. The punishment isn’t merely deserved; it’s intimate.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
More Quotes by Solomon
Add to List
