(4) For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.

(48) Those fruits are not of so dead, hard, bitter, sour and astringent a relish for food; nor do they rot and grow stinking, as those in this world do, but all consist in holy divine power.

(13) Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.

(69) As long as the evil deed done does not bear fruit, the fool thinks it is like honey; but when it ripens, then the fool suffers grief.

(25) For every quality bears its own fruit: as in the corrupted murderous den or dark valley and dungeon of the earth there spring up all manner of earthly trees, plants, flowers and fruits.

(359) The fields are damaged by weeds, mankind is damaged by lust: therefore a gift bestowed on those who are free from lust brings great reward.

(110) Just as a sour bitter green apple is forced by the sun, that it becometh very pleasant or lovely to be eaten, and yet all its qualities are tasted; so the Deity keepeth its qualities also, but striveth or struggles gently, like a pleasant lovely sport or scene.

(34) Of this you have a similitude in an apple, which at first is astringent, harsh or chokey, but when the sweet quality forceth and overcometh it, then it is very soft, lovely and pleasant to eat: Thus it is in the divine power also.

(21) But seeing the eternal word must qualify, mix or unite with the corruption in the wrath, thereupon the bodies of the fruits were evil and good. For the outward birth or geniture of the fruits must be out of or from the earth which is in death; and the spirit of life must be out of the astral birth which stands in love and wrath.

(163) Bad deeds, and deeds hurtful to ourselves, are easy to do; what is beneficial and good, that is very difficult to do.

(43) But yet nature has not been able to bring forth heavenly power, virtue and qualities, therefore its fruit is half dead, corrupt and impure.

(356) The fields are damaged by weeds, mankind is damaged by passion: therefore a gift bestowed on the passionless brings great reward.

(27) For thou seest plainly how all the fruits of the earth, whatsoever it bringeth forth, must putrefy and rot; also that they are a death.

(10) This glory, which Shone forth on the face of Moses, the people could not look on. Wherefore he took a veil for the glory, to those who looked cam ally. For those, who demand toll, detain those who bring in any worldly things, who are burdened with their own passions. But him that is free of all things which are subject to duty, and is full of knowledge, and of the righteousness of works, they pass on with their good wishes, blessing the man with his work. "And his life shall not fall away" - the leaf of the living tree that is nourished "by the water-courses." Now the righteous is likened to fruit-bearing trees, and not only to such as are of the nature of tall-growing ones. And in the sacrificial oblations, according to the law, there were those who looked for blemishes in the sacrifices. They who are skilled in such matters distinguish propension (orexis) from lust (epiqumia); and assign the latter, as being irrational, to pleasures and licentiousness; and propension, as being a rational movement, they assign to the necessities of nature.

(357) The fields are damaged by weeds, mankind is damaged by hatred: therefore a gift bestowed on those who do not hate brings great reward.

(18) Manjusri asked: “What is the root of good and evil?”

Vimalakirti replied: “The body is the root of good and evil.”

(119) Even an evil-doer sees happiness as long as his evil deed has not ripened; but when his evil deed has ripened, then does the evil-doer see evil.

(10) Through the action of this (His) Good Mind (as he works his grace within us) the benevolently wise One declared a result as its fruit, He knowing the bountiful Piety, the creatrix of righteous beings . These all, O Mazda Ahura! in Thy Kingdom (are 'helps to our progress') for they smite (our tyrants) with fear .

(40) And the Spirit of the great World now supposes that he has gotten the Virgin; he grasps with his Clutches, and will mingle his Infection with the Virgin, and he supposes that he has the Prize; it shall not now run away from him, he supposes now he will find the Pearl well enough. But it is with him as with a Thief, driven out of a fair Garden of Delight, where he had eaten pleasant Fruit, who comes, and goes round about the inclosed Or Poison. Garden, and would fain eat some more of the good Fruit, and yet cannot get in, but must reach in with his Hand, and yet cannot come at the Fruit notwithstanding; for the Gardener comes, and takes away the Fruit; and thus he must go away empty, and his Lust is changed into Discontent. Thus also it is with him [viz. with the Spirit of this World,] he sows thus in his fiery [or burning] Lust the P Seed into the Matrix, and the Tincture receives it with great Joy, and supposes that to be the Virgin; but the [sour] harsh Fiat comes thereupon, and attracts the same to it, while the Tincture is so well pleased.

(4) Similarly, also, the same rule holds with pains, some of which we endure, and others we shun. But choice and avoidance are exercised according to knowledge; so that it is not pleasure that is the good thing, but knowledge by which we shall choose a pleasure at a certain time, and of a certain kind. Now the martyr chooses the pleasure that exists in prospect through the present pain. If pain is conceived as existing in thirst, and pleasure in drinking, the pain that has preceded becomes the efficient cause of pleasure. But evil cannot be the efficient cause of good. Neither, then, is the one thing nor the other evil.