Paulo Coelho - Manuscript Found in Accra

None of us can avoid meeting those who will betray and slander us, but we can drive away the evil before it shows its true face. Because any excessively kind behavior could betray a knife hidden behind the back and ready to be used.

Loyal men and women do not bother to show what they are like, because other loyal spirits understand their qualities and defects.

Beware of anyone who tries to please you all the time.

And beware of the pain you can cause yourself by allowing a vile and cowardly heart to be part of your world. Once the evil has been done, there is no point in blaming anyone: the owner of the house was the one who opened the door.

The more fragile the slanderer, the more dangerous his actions. Do not make yourself vulnerable to those weak spirits who cannot bear to encounter a strong spirit.

If someone confronts you over ideas or ideals, step up and accept the fight, because conflict is present in every moment of our lives and sometimes it needs to show itself in the broad light of day.

But do not fight in order to prove that you are right, or to impose your ideas or ideals on someone else. Accept the fight only as a way of keeping your spirit clean and your will spotless. When the fight is over, both sides will emerge as winners because they tested their limitations and their abilities.

Even if, at first, one of them says, “I won,” and the other grows sad, thinking, “I lost.”

Since both respect the courage and determination of the other, the time will come when they will once again walk along hand in hand, even if they have to wait a thousand years for that to happen.

Meanwhile, if someone merely wishes to provoke you, shake the dust from your feet and carry on. Fight only with a worthy opponent, and not with someone who uses trickery to prolong a war that is already over, as does sometimes happen.

Such cruelty does not come from the warriors who meet on the battlefield and know why they are there, but from those who manipulate victory and defeat for their own ends.

The enemy is not the person standing before you, sword in hand. It is the person standing next to you with a dagger concealed behind his back.

The most important of wars is not waged with a lofty spirit or a soul accepting of its fate. It is the war that is going on now, as we speak, and whose battlefield is the Spirit, where Good and Evil, Courage and Cowardice, Love and Fear face one another.

Never repay hatred with hatred, but with justice.

The world does not divide into enemies and friends, but into the weak and the strong.

The strong are generous in victory.

The weak gang up on the losers, unaware that defeat is only a transitory thing. From among the losers, they choose those who seem most vulnerable.

If the same were to happen to you, ask yourself if you would like to take on the role of victim.

If the answer is yes, you will never be free of that choice for the rest of your life, and you will be easy prey whenever you are faced with a decision that demands courage. You might talk like a winner, but the look of defeat in your eyes will always be there, and everyone will notice.

If the answer is no, stand your ground. Better to rebel while your wounds are easily treated—even if it takes time and patience.

You will spend a few sleepless nights thinking: “I don’t deserve this.”

Or thinking what an unfair world it is because it failed to give you the welcome you were expecting. Or feeling ashamed at the humiliation endured in front of your colleagues, your lover, or your parents.

But if you hold fast, the pack of hyenas will eventually move off and go in search of someone else to play the role of victim. They will have to learn the same lesson for themselves, because no one else will be able to help them.

Therefore, your enemies are not the adversaries who were put there to test your courage. They are the cowards who were put there to test your weakness.

Night had fallen now. The Copt turned to the religious men who had been listening to all that he had said and asked them if they had anything to add. All three nodded .

And the rabbi said:

When a great rabbi saw that the Jews were being mistreated, he went into the forest, lit a sacred fire, and said a special prayer asking God to protect his people. And God sent him a miracle.

Later, his disciple went into the same part of the forest and said: “Master of the Universe, I do not know how to light the sacred fire, but I do know the special prayer; please, hear me!” And the miracle happened again.

A generation passed, and another rabbi, seeing how his people were being persecuted, went into the forest and said: “I do not know how to light the sacred fire, nor do I know the special prayer, but I still remember the place. Help us, O Lord!” And the Lord helped them.

Fifty years later, another rabbi, who was crippled, spoke to God, saying: “I do not know how to light the sacred fire, nor do I know the special prayer, and I can’t even find the place in the forest. All I can do is tell this story and hope that God will hear me.”

And again the miracle occurred.

Go forth, then, and tell the story of this evening.

And the imam who was in charge of the Al-Aqsa mosque waited respectfully for his friend the rabbi to finish speaking, then said:

A man knocked on the door of a Bedouin friend’s house to ask him a favor:

“Will you lend me four thousand dinar to pay off a debt?”

His friend asked his wife to gather together everything they had of value, but it still wasn’t enough. They had to go out and beg for money from their neighbors until they had the necessary amount.

When the man left, his wife noticed that her husband was crying.

“Why are you sad? Now that we are in debt to our neighbors, are you afraid that we won’t be able to repay it?”

“No, it’s not that. I’m crying because he is a dearly beloved friend, and yet I knew nothing of the difficulties he was in. I only found out when he came and knocked on my door and asked to borrow some money.”

Go forth, therefore, and tell everyone what you heard this evening, so that we can help our brother before he needs us to.

And when the imam finished speaking, the Christian priest began:

A sower went out to sow. And it came to pass that as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds of the air came and devoured it. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it became scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And others that fell on good ground did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, some a hundred.

Therefore, scatter your seed wherever you go, because we can never know which seeds will grow and flourish and enlighten the next generation.

Night now covered the city of Jerusalem, and the Copt asked everyone to return to their houses and record everything they had heard, and for those who did not know how to write to try to remember his words. However, before the multitude left, he said:

Do not think that I am come to spread peace upon the Earth. No, from this night on, we will travel the world bearing an invisible sword, so that we can fight the demons of intolerance and lack of understanding. Try to carry that sword as far as your legs will take you. And when your legs can take you no farther, pass on the word or the manuscript, always choosing people worthy of wielding that sword.