Once, someone at dinner was being rather envious of someone, rather unpleasant, and Oscar Wilde said:
“The devil was walking one day in the Libyan Desert and he saw a monk being tormented by some of his demons. And he approached, and the demons bowed in front of him and said, ‘Master, for 39 days and 39 nights, we have tried to tempt this holy monk away from his god, and his religion. We have offered him powers and principalities, we’ve offered him the joys of the flesh, we have offered him wine, and food, and riches, but he has turned us down. There’s nothing that we can do to win this holy man to our cause.’
And the devil said,
‘Out of my way,’ and he whispered in the monk’s ear. And instantly the monk
took the pectoral cross around his neck and snapped it, and filled the air with
hideous curses against his god, and his church, and his religion, and swore he
would never follow Christ again. And the demons fell down in front of the devil
and said, ‘Master, what can you have said in one second that we could not?’ The
devil said, ‘Oh, it was very simple. I just told him his brother had been made
Bishop of Alexandria.’ ”
