“I have always held that it is only when one sees one's own mistakes with a convex lens, and does just the reverse in the case of others, that one is able to arrive at a just relative estimate of the two.”
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About this quote
Most people run this backwards, magnifying others' failings and quietly excusing their own. Flipping the lens means holding yourself to the strict reading and giving other people the generous one. It's less about humility for show than about getting an honest measure of who actually owes what.
When to use it
- After a shouting match, a wife asks first what she got wrong before tallying her husband's part.
- A manager reviewing a failed project scrutinizes her own calls closely and reads her team's slips charitably.
- When a friendship cools, a man wonders how he contributed instead of listing every way his friend let him down.