In his own heart he has no enemies and is always ready to make his peace with those who have acted as such. However, even those who treat him as an enemy but whom he does not regard as such, as well as those who turn the basilisk glance of envy upon him, will be useful tutors of the values of existence, and after every kind of onslaught he can sit quietly beneath a friendly tree and understand better why fame is a gift of doubtful value, a sword with two edges whose sharper and crueller edge is jealousy; why it is as satisfying to have malignant enemies as to have benevolent friends, for they afford practical instruction in non-attachment and self-purification, priceless tuition which no friend is ever likely to give him; why a man is sometimes indebted to his bitterest opponents for the favour of a useful criticism which has somehow crept in among their ugly lies, while his best friends injure him by being silent; why he must be content to walk alone with truth and refrain from asking of the world that understanding which it is incompetent to give; why most warm human longings for a happiness dependent upon others inevitably end in the dismal dust and cold ash; and why the finite ego affords too narrow a life for the infinite Mind, of which, as Jesus told his wondering hearers, we know neither whence it cometh nor whither it goeth.
-- Perspectives > Chapter 6: Emotions and Ethics > # 61
