Letters 87.27

But I differ from these men; for the conditions in each case are not at all the same. In the one instance I can take the gold without the serpent, in the other I cannot make the profit without committing the sacrilege. The gain in the latter case does not lie side by side with the crime; it is blended with the crime.

Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 87.27, translated by Richard Mott Gummere