003:003 Remember that we put the horses' bit into their mouths to make them obey us, and so we turn their whole bodies round.
003:004 So too with ships, great as they are, and often driven along by strong gales, yet they can be steered with a very small rudder in whichever direction the caprice of the man at the helm chooses.
003:005 In the same way the tongue is an insignificant part of the body, but it is immensely boastful. Remember how a mere spark may set a vast forest in flames.
003:006 And the tongue is a fire. That world of iniquity, the tongue, is placed within us spotting and soiling our whole nature, and setting the whole round of our lives on fire, being itself set on fire by Gehenna.
003:007 For brute nature under all its forms—beasts and birds, reptiles and fishes—can be subjected and kept in subjection by human nature.
003:008 But the tongue no man or woman is able to tame.
It is an ever-busy mischief, and is full of deadly poison.
003:009 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men,
who are made in God's likeness.
003:010 Out of the same mouth there proceed blessing and cursing.
My brethren, this ought not to be.
003:011 In a fountain, are fresh water and bitter sent forth from
the same opening?
003:012 Can a fig-tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine yield figs?
No; and neither can salt water yield sweet.