MANICHAEAN LITERATURE 597
Whoever strikes you, do not strike back.
Whoever hates you, do not hate back.
Whoever envies you, do not envy again.
Whoever strikes you with anger, always return him kindness,
and what you deplore in others do not yourself do.^10
No, you must endure insults and abuses
from those of higher station, from equals and those below,
because you who are devout and endure will not waver.
If someone throws flowers against an elephant,
these flowers cannot smash an elephant.
If raindrops fall on a stone,
these raindrops cannot melt the stone.
So insults and abuses can in no way make the devout
and of good endurance waver.
- The golden rule (here in a negative formulation), found also for example in Gospel of
Thomas 6.
