It is curious that our own offenses should seem so much less heinous than the offenses of others.I

suppose the reason is that we know all the circumstances that have occasioned them and so manage to

excuse in ourselves what we cannot excuse in others.We turn our attention away from ouor own

defects,and when we are forced by untoward events to consider them,find it easy to condone them.For

all I know we are right to do this;they are part of us and we must accept the good and bad in

ourselves together.

But when we come to judge others,it is not by ourselves as we really are that we judge them,but by an

image that we have formed of ourselves for which we have left out everything that offends our vanity

or would discredit us in the eyes of the world.To take a trivial instance:how scornful we are when we

catch someone out telling a lie;but who can say that he has never told not one,but a hundred?

There is not much to choose between men.They are all a hotchpotch of greatness and littleness,of

virtue and vice,of nobility and baseness.Some have more strength ov character,or more opportunity,and

so in one direction or another give their instincts freer play,but potentially they are the same.For

my part,I do not think I am any better or any worse than most people,but I know that if I set down

every action in my life and every thought that has crossed my mind,the world would consider me a

monster of depravity.The knowledge that these reveries are common to all men should inspire one with

tolerance to oneself as well as to others.It is well also if they enable us to look upon our

fellows,even the most eminent and respectable,with humor,and if they lead us to take ourselves not too

seriously.

Be strict with yourself, tolerant toward others. That's the point.