It is impossible, indeed impossible, if we wish it not to achieve this aim: because we don’t want the passions of our soul to be cured, this is why they use to persist in us... No one is in despair, except for the one who thinks it befits him to be in despair... Even if someone transcends in sin all the people who have been born so far, and I will add, all who will be until the end of the world, even then, it is impossible to make God hate him.

On virtue..., speech VI, Patrologia Graeca156.485, 492, 505

Οὐκ ἔστιν, οὐκ ἔστιν ὡς ἀληθῶς, θελήσαντας ἀποτυχεῖν τοῦ σκοποῦ. Ἐκ γὰρ τοῦ μή βούλεσθαι ἰαθῆναι τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς παθήματα ἐπιμένειν εἴωθεν ἡμῖν… Οὐδεὶς ἐν ἀπογνώσει, εἰ μή ὁ ἀπογινώσκειν νομίζων ἄξιος εἶναι… Κἂν πᾶσάν τις τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ὑπερελάσῃ τῶν πώποτε γεγενημένων ἀνθρώπων, προσθήσω δ' ὅτι καὶ πάντων τῶν ἄχρι τέλους γενησομένων, οὐκ ἔσθ' ὅπως μισούμενον ἐκείνῳ γένοιτο.