Saturday, March 7, 2009

Extinguish the fire of enmity before it spreads (16-1)

Throughout my life, I found that whenever I defended myself against defamatory comments, loss and regret were the main results. At first I would think it wise that I should set things straight when some person criticized me, regardless of whether the criticism was verbal or written. In the end, however, I found the opposite to be true. By defending myself, more enmity resulted, and instead of the restoration of good ties between my critic and myself, he would attempt to malign me even further. Eventually I would wish that I had never confronted him in the first place. It would have been better to forgive, forbear, show patience, turn away, and ignore the defamatory remarks.
Therefore, if you hear malicious words from someone, do not answer back: it will only result in multiplying one attack into ten.

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