We judge others by their actions but we judge ourselves by our intensions.
Interpretation
We often hold others accountable for what they do, while we excuse our own actions based on our intentions.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson highlights the double standard we employ in judgment. We tend to evaluate others strictly by their actions and outcomes, while we are often forgiving of ourselves, attributing our own behaviors to our intentions rather than the results. This discrepancy points to a deep-seated bias in human nature and calls us to reflect on our own judgments and how we apply them to ourselves and others.
In practice
In a discussion about ethics, one might quote this to illustrate the difficulties in judging character.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
For every force charged by God, may He be exalted, with some business is an angel put in charge.
If a poor family falls on hard times in the woods, and no one is around to care, did it really happen?
While the gentleman cherishes benign rule, the small man cherishes his native land. While the gentleman cherishes a respect for the law, the small man cherishes generous treatment.
Our brain is mapping the world. Often that map is distorted, but it's a map with constant immediate sensory input.
Conscience is the internal perception of the rejection of a particular wish operating within us.
I used to believe in God. The Christian one, that is (There are a few thousand to choose from. But I was born in a country where the dominant religion was Christianity so I believed in that one. Isn't it weird how that always happens?). Luckily I was also interested in science and nature. And reason and logic. And honesty and truth. And equality and fairness. By the age of eight I was an atheist.
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