THE VANITY OF JUDGMENT
To judge another is no proof of intelligence:
those who delight in condemning should first strive
to correct their own failings,
for one is often struck by what is more unworthy than oneself.
The arrogance of judgment reveals less the clarity of mind
than the poverty of discernment.
He who sets himself up as censor
betrays the weakness of his own inner realm.
Criticism, when born of pride,
teaches nothing but the blindness
of the one who utters it.
It is nobler to amend oneself
than to denounce the faults of others.
The truly wise spirit
practices self-reform
before claiming to reform others.
The sternest judges of men
are often the most guilty before themselves.
The condemnation of another
often serves as a screen
for one’s own shortcomings.
One rises higher by cultivating integrity
than by proclaiming another’s fall.
He who seeks the stain in another
ignores the corruption that consumes him.
Only inner justice
remains a legitimate authority
to evaluate the deeds of men.
Moral injunctions sound hollow
when the life of the one who utters them
offers no testimony.
To judge is often to forget
that one is oneself exposed to error.
The dignity of the spirit
resides less in sentencing
than in understanding.
Easy blame is the weapon
of feeble consciences
that refuse to know themselves.
He who sees faults everywhere
shows that he does not yet know his own.
The judge’s intolerance
is but the mirror
of his inability to reform himself.
The more a man persists in denouncing,
the more he unveils the shadow of his own deficiencies.
It is easy to condemn,
it is rare to examine oneself.
True intelligence
is fulfilled in self-mastery,
not in the scrutiny of others.
One does not ennoble oneself
by debasing another,
but by elevating one’s own being
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