prisoner’s cell;
Yet I assure you that I do not wish to reproach the warder or the Builder of the prison.
Those who give you a serpent when you ask for a fish, may have nothing but serpents to give. It is then generosity on their part.
Trickery succeeds sometimes, but it always commits suicide.
You are truly a forgiver when you forgive murderers who never spill blood, thieves who never steal, and liars who utter no falsehood.
He who can put his finger upon that which divides good from evil is he who can touch the very hem of the garment of God.
If your heart is a volcano how shall you expect flowers to bloom in your hands?
A strange form of self-indulgence! There are times when I would be wronged and cheated, that I may laugh at the expense of those who think I do not know I am being wronged and cheated.
What shall I say of him who is the pursuer playing the part of the pursued?
Let him who wipes his soiled hands with your garment take your garment.
He may need it again; surely you would not.
It is a pity that money-changers cannot be good gardeners.
Please do not whitewash your inherent faults with your acquired virtues. I would have the faults; they are like mine own.
How often have I attributed to myself crimes I have never committed, so that the other person may feel comfortable in my presence.
Even the masks of life are masks of deeper mystery.
You may judge others only according to your knowledge of yourself.
Tell me now, who among us is guilty and who is unguilty?
The truly just is he who feels half guilty of your misdeeds.
Only an idiot and a genius break man-made laws; and they are the nearest to the heart of God.
It is only when you are pursued that you become swift.
I have no enemies, O, God, but if I am to have an enemy.
Let his strength be equal to mine,
沙与沫 第四章（1）
That truth alone may be the victor.
You will be quite friendly with your enemy when you both die.
Perhaps a man may commit suicide in self-defense.
Long ago there lived a man who was crucified for being too loving and too lovable.
And strange to relate I met him thrice yesterday.
The first time he was asking a policeman not to take a prostitute to prison; the second time he was drinking wine with an outcast; and the third time he was having a fist-fight with a promoter inside a church.
If all they say of good and evil were true, then my life is but one long crime.
Pity is but half justice.
The only one who has been unjust to me is the one to whose brother I have been unjust.
When you see a man led to prison, you say in your heart,
“Mayhap he is escaping from a narrower prison.”
And when you see a man drunken, you say in your heart,
“Mayhap he sought to escape from something still more unbeautiful.”
Oftentimes I have hated in self-defense; but if I were stronger I would not have used such a weapon.－－
How stupid is he who would patch the hatred in his eyes with the smile of his lips.
Only those beneath me can envy or hate me.
I have never been envied nor hated; I am above no one.
Only those above me can praise or belittle me.
I have never been praised nor belittled; I am below no one.
Your saying to me, “I do not understand you,” is praise beyond my worth, and an insult you do not deserve. How mean am I when life gives me gold and I give you silver, and yet I deem myself generous.
When you reach the heart of life you will find yourself not higher than the felon, and not lower than the prophet.
Strange that you should pity the slow-footed and not the slow-minded,
And the blind-eyed rather than the blind-hearted.
It is wiser for the lame not to break his crutches upon the head of his enemy.
How blind is he who gives you out of his pocket that he may take out of your heart!
Life is a procession. The slow of foot finds it too swift and he steps out;
And the swift of foot finds it too slow and he too steps out.
If there is such a thing as sin some of us commit it backward following our forefath