Crime and Punishment

"Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a
wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto
you and an intruder upon your world.

But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise
beyond the highest which is in each of you,

So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the
lowest which is in you also.

And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent
knowledge of the whole tree,

So the wrongdoer cannot do wrong without the hidden
will of you all.

Like a procession you walk together towards your god-self.
You are the way and the wayfarers.

And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind
him, a caution against the stumbling stone.

Ay, and he falls for those ahead of him, who, though faster
and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone."

Crime and Punishment,
The Prophet
Khalil Gibran