On Motes and Beams 微塵與棟梁 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 our 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 fro 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 of 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. 譯文： 微塵與棟梁 讓人奇怪的是，和別人的過錯比起來，我們自身的過錯往往不是那樣的可惡。我想，其原因應該是我們知曉一切導致自己犯錯的情況，因此能夠設(shè)法諒解自己的錯誤，而別人的錯誤卻不能諒解。我們對自己的缺點不甚關(guān)注，即便是深陷困境而不得不正視它們的時候，我們也會很容易就寬恕自己。據(jù)我所知，我們這樣做是正確的。缺點是我們自身的一部分，我們必須接納自己的好和壞。