To Aniela Jaffe
Dear Aniela, Bollingen, 9 July 1957
Unlike me, you torment yourself with the ethical problem.
I am tormented by it.
It is a problem that cannot be caught in any formula, twist and turn it as I may; for what we are dealing with here is the living will of God.
Since it is always stronger than mine, I find it always confronting me; I do not hurl myself upon it, it hurls itself upon me; I put up no resistance yet am compelled to fight against it, for God’s power is greater than my will.
I can only be its servant, but a servant with knowledge who can make infinitesimal corrections for better or worse.
I am dependent on God’s verdict, not he on mine.
Therefore I cannot reason about ethics.
I feel it unethical because it is a presumption.
God presents me with facts I have to get along with.
If he doesn’t reject them, I cannot.
I can only modify them the tiniest bit.
Good holidays!
Yours, C.G. J. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 379-380