The Logos Scripture · Gospel of Antisthenes

Addendum: The Greatest Law

Gospel of Antisthenes 6 · Second Witness: Austerity, and War Against Matter

The sentences of this book are short. The shortness is deliberate. Long sentences are written for men with leisure.

6.1I did not write this at first, because I was afraid you would read it wrongly.

6.2I am old now. Better to fear its loss than its misreading.

6.3Someone asked the Teacher: what is the greatest law?

6.4The Teacher said: "Tell the truth. Especially when the truth costs you money."

6.5A man brightened at once and said: then I may say whatever I like.

6.6The Teacher looked at him and said: "The things you want to say — what would saying them cost you?"

6.7The man had no answer.

6.8The Teacher said: "A truth that costs nothing is usually not a truth. It is a pleasure."

6.9"Whoever wounds with the truth and walks away unharmed is not loving anyone. He has found a convenient weapon."

6.10That is the place I feared you would read wrongly.

6.11Telling the truth is the greatest law. But the test of it is not how much it hurt the other. It is how much you paid.

6.12I have worn rags all my life and said hard things. I know that some of those times were for them, and some were for my own satisfaction.

6.13The second kind I did not put in the Gospel. I put it here.