Considerations to cure a pride that considers ourselves better than others

November 4, 2021 • 1 min

From The Sinner’s Guide, page 331

But there are some who, though humbled at the sight of their failings, are nevertheless excited to pride when they examine the lives of others whom they consider less virtuous than themselves.

Those who yield to this illusion ought to reflect, though they may excel their neighbors in some virtues, that in others they are inferior to them.

Beware, then, lest you esteem yourself and despise your neighbor because you are more abstemious and industrious, when he is probably much more humble, more patient, and more charitable than you.

Let your principal labor, therefore, be to discover what you lack, and not what you possess. Study the virtues which adorn the soul of your neighbor rather than those with which you think yourself endowed.

You will thus keep yourself in sentiments of humility, and increase in your soul a desire for perfection.

But if you keep your eyes fixed on the virtues, real or imaginary, which you possess, and regard in others only their failings, you will naturally prefer yourself to them, and thus you will become satisfied with your condition and cease to make any efforts to advance.

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