Myrian Rios and her children

Once, a man spoke that his neighbor was a thief. The neighbor was sent to prison. Some time later, they discovered that the man was innocent. He was released and after much humiliation, he resolved to sue his neighbor, the slanderer.

In court, the slanderer said to the judge “comments do not cause much harm.” The judge responded: “Write the comments that you made of him on a piece of paper. Afterwards tear the paper up and throw the pieces in the road on the way home. Tomorrow, return to hear the sentence!”

The man obeyed and returned the following day, when the judge said: “Before sentencing, you will have to retrieve the pieces of paper that you spread yesterday.”

“I cannot do this!” responded the man. “The wind spread them all of the place and now I don’t know where they are!”

To which the judge responded: “Likewise a simple comment can destroy the honor of a man, it spreads itself to the point of not being able to be prevented from causing great evil; If you can’t speak well of a person it is better that you say nothing.

May we be lords of our language, in order that we may not be slaves of our words.

In the world always there will be people that are going to love you and others that are going to hate you for the same reasons. Get used to it.

Whomever loves do not see defects. Whomever hates does not see qualities and whomever is a friend sees both.

Translated from Portuguese