Text of the meditation
A gentle person, whose good behaviour is prompted by thoughtfulness and kindliness, is always loved, whatever their origin. The person who has perfected themselves in gentleness never quarrels. They never return the hard word; they leave it alone, or meet it with a gentle word, which is far more powerful than wrath.
Gentleness is wedded to wisdom, and the wise person has overcome all anger in themselves, and so understands how to overcome it in others. The gentle person is saved from most of the disturbances and turmoils with which uncontrolled people afflict themselves. While they are wearing themselves out with wasteful and needless strain, the gentle person is quiet and composed, and such quietness and composure are strong to win in the battle of life.
Argument analyses the outer skin, but sympathy reaches to the heart.
James Allen (1864–1912), Book of Meditations for Every Day in the Year (1913) – public-domain text, gently modernised.
The original 1913 text is in the public domain.
