Taking a few hits...

It's insanely easy to be cruelly critical of other people. We all do it, even if we don't voice those criticisms: "Those two parents are idiots. Look at how their kids behave." "She looks horrible. Doesn't she own a mirror?" "I wish they would fire that guy; a monkey could do his job better!"

And yet...

We never truly know what goes on in the hearts and minds of other folks. Maybe it's wisdom borne of age, maybe it's compassion borne of suffering or maybe it's just weariness of a cruel world, but I am tired of meanness.

Found this quote from Teddy Roosevelt:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.