This is a fan translation of Envoy From the Heavens (Посланец небес) by Mikhail Akhmanov, currently only available in Russian and, because of the author's passing in 2019, unlikely to ever be published in English. This is the book in a series called Trevelyan's Mission (Миссия Тревельяна), which is a spin-off from the author's Arrivals from the Dark (Пришедшие из мрака) six-book series.
I claim no rights to the contents herein.
Appendix 3
Yezdan the Grey-eyed, Maxims from the Book of the Beginning and the End
Whosoever reaches his hand to forbidden knowledge, may it come away full of dust.
We only have that, which we lose.
One cannot see another's face, when standing face-to-face.
A blade exists to maintain justice in the world.
Religion is merely the dress of true faith.
The ability to marvel at the wonder of life is what feeds the root of the soul.
A person's progeny is his shadow stretching into the future.
The deadliest gifts are the ones of which the giver does not suspect.
There are mountains beyond the mountains.
The beast is always with you.
Never stare into the eyes of servants, children, and animals for long, as it frightens them.
Life is the laughter of a madman in emptiness.
Life is the valley of creation and destruction of the soul.
One may not believe in god, but one must love him.
No person chooses the place of his arrival into the world, and he may not choose the day of his death.
Only those, whose inner torment is unseen to the world, can be called wise.
We are capable of far more than we think.
Each of us has his own bowl of poison.
The value of the morning home is high.
Time erases the memory of what has happened to us.
Nothing happens without sin.
Who will sharpen the blade against the evil of the world?
We come naked into this world and so must worship the divine naked as well.
There is no freedom without law.
Protect what you have.
Beware the obvious.
Ten strong people cannot defeat millions of weak ones.
At the beginning of life, a person needs a mat and a bowl for eating, and at its end just a funeral urn.
The present casts a shadow before itself, but not everyone can read its signs.
Whosoever wishes to judge one who is voiceless is a criminal himself.
The dead must not take up space means for the living.
The debt to the dead is eternal.
Respect death, for before you stands a dead universe.
A good person is a morning joy.
Rare are the people of morning joy.
What is happiness? A honey butterfly that flutters in our souls.
Food and drink are the ties binding every person together.
Longing for one's homeland, if shared with another, becomes the joy of meeting.
There is no storm that breaks all trees.
The duty of the old is to lie to the young.