The early Greek philosophers, interested primarily as we have seen in the problem of the nature of the universe, taught that there were all-pervasive laws controlling the entire universe. Therefore, goodness for them was to be found in harmony with these laws. Further, they were so enchanted by this idea of law that even evil did not bother them much, Evil, for them, was but a phase, a note in the universal harmony and thus, was not really evil but was another kind of good, a necessary part of the whole.

— from the chapter “What is Good and What is Evil?” in Basic Teachings of the Great Philosophers by SE Frost, Jr.