In the beginning, God did not make man to be like this, to suffer and grieve, but He made him equal to the angels; only slightly did he differ from the angels. He made Paradise in Eden and placed him there to rule as a king with free choice and free will. He bound him with only one commandment, so that it would show that he is governed by someone superior. But since he was deceived by the devil and took delight in the thought of receiving equality with God, he was expelled from paradise to this exile here and fell into afflictions. Banished by God, he was doomed to reap thorns and thistles all the days of his life.

Now, what else are these thorns and thistles but the successive misfortunes and daily afflictions caused by temptations, by perverse men, and even by our toilsome nature itself, which has acquired bad habits and tendencies as second nature? We suffer more painful temptations from it than from the other enemies. And if the mercy of God does not reach us in time, we are in danger of perishing.

– ‘Monastic Wisdom’