Justice and Mercy

"This may be compared to a king who had a craftsman make
for him an extremely delicate, precious goblet. The king
said, 'If I pour hot liquid into it, it will burst, if I
pour ice cold liquid into it, it will crack!' What did
the King do? He mixed the hot and the cold together and
poured it into it, and it did not crack." Even so did
the Holy One, blessed be He, say: "If I create the world
on the basis of the attribute of mercy alone, it will
be overwhelmed with sin; but if I create it on the basis
of the attribute of justice alone, how could the world
endure? I will therefore create it with both the attributes
of mercy and justice, and may it endure!"