Fragments from an Apocryphal Gospel

• 3. Wretched are the poor in spirit, for under the earth they will be as they are on earth.
• 4. Wretched is he who weeps, for he has the miserable habit of weeping.
• 5. Lucky are those who know that suffering is not a crown of heavenly bliss.
• 6. It is not enough to be last in order sometimes to be first.
• 7. Happy is he who does not insist on being right, for no one is or everyone is.
• 8. Happy is he who forgives others and who forgives himself.
• 9. Blessed are the meek, for they do not agree to disagree.
• 10. Blessed are those who do not hunger for justice, for they know that our fate, for better or worse, is the work of chance, which is past understanding.
• 11. Blessed are the merciful, for their happiness is in the act of mercy and not in the hope of reward.
• 12. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they see God.
• 13. Blessed are those who suffer persecution for a just cause, for justice matters more to them than their personal destiny.
• 14. No one is the salt of the earth; and no one, at some moment in their life, is not.
• 15. Let the light of one lamp be lit, even though no man see it. God will see it.
• 16. There is no commandment that cannot be broken, including the ones I give and those the prophets spoke.
• 17. He who kills for a just cause, or for a cause he believes just, is not guilty.
• 18. The acts of men are worthy of neither fire nor heaven.
• 19. Do not hate your enemy, for if you do, you are in some way his slave. Your hate will never be greater than your peace.
• 20. If your right hand should offend you, forgive it; you are your body and you are your soul and it is hard if not impossible to fix the boundary between them…
• 24. Do not make too much of the cult of truth; there is no man who at the end of a day has not lied, rightly, numerous times.
• 25. Do not swear, because every oath is bombast.
• 26. Resist evil, but without shock and without anger. Whoever strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him, as long as you are not moved by fear.
• 27. I do not speak of revenge nor of forgiveness; oblivion is the only revenge and the only forgiveness.
• 28. To do your enemy a good turn can be the work of justice and is not difficult; to love him, a job for angels and not men.
• 29. To do good for your enemy is the best way to gratify your vanity.
• 30. Do not accumulate gold on earth, for gold is the father of idleness, and it, of sadness and boredom.
• 31. Believe that others are just or will be, and if it proves untrue, it is not your fault.
• 32. God is more generous than men and will measure them by a different standard.
• 33. Give what is holy to dogs, cast your pearls before swine; the important thing is to give.
• 34. Seek for the pleasure of seeking, not of finding…
• 39. The door, not the man, is the one that chooses.
• 40. Do not judge the tree by its fruits nor the man by his works; they may be worse or better.
• 41. Nothing is built on stone, everything on sand, but our duty is to build as if sand were stone…
• 47. Happy are the poor without bitterness and the rich without pride.
• 48. Happy are the brave, who accept applause or defeat in the same spirit.
• 49. Happy are those who hold in memory words of Virgil or Christ, for these will brighten their days.
• 50. Happy are the loved and the lovers and those who can do without love.
• 51. Happy are the happy.

from In Praise of Darkness