“When you find yourself judging someone, take a step back. Ask yourself, what deep underlying insecurity or fear is this person triggering in me? During the most judgmental phases of my life, I was also extremely insecure and unhappy. I couldn’t face my own insecurities and unhappiness so instead, I chose to reflect these feelings onto others in the form of judgment. Today, when I feel myself becoming judgmental towards anyone, it serves as a nice reminder that I have some internal work to do and I do it.”
Cole Schafer (January Black), One Minute, Please? (Page 136)
“It’s hard to be a person in this world. Maybe not as much for you, but it definitely is for some people. So you must be patient. You must be understanding. You must not assume the worst. You must do what you can to help…and put up with the people that you can’t. Things are hard enough, you don’t need to make it harder…for them or for yourself.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic Blog
“People normally see you through the very thick lens of their own past. Letting our lives be defined by the valuations/judgments that others place on us, is a quick path to people pleasing and constant dissatisfaction. If you want to do your life justice, then you need to simply be kind, walk gently, have compassion, but above all, live in a way that honors your truth. It is possible to view others without judgment, to see them through a lens of acceptance, but that takes intentional practice and healing work to relieve yourself of the thickness of ego.”
Yung Pueblo
“just because someone was wrong once, it doesn’t mean they are going to be wrong forever. similarly, just because we may perceive someone as wrong, it does not necessarily mean that we are right. in most cases we lack the perfect information required to form an objective and universal perspective. it is important to remember that we are all imperfect and that we all live through the limited perspective of ego. striving to learn as much as we can from one another without making harsh and permanent judgments is a sign of wisdom.”
Yung Pueblo, Inward (Page 183)
“He who always listens to what other people say about him will never find inner peace.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 77)
“The majority of people are subjective toward themselves and objective toward all others, terribly objective sometimes, but the real task is, in fact, to be objective toward oneself and subjective toward all others.”
Sören Kierkegaard, via Sunbeams (Page 157)
“People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, via Sunbeams (Page 148)