Criticism, Condemnation and Complaints

I finished reading Plato's The Republic this week, notes on that coming soon.  Around the same time, I listened to Brian Johnson's summary of How to Win Friends and Influence People, where he quotes Benjamin Franklin saying "I will speak no ill of any man, and speak all the good I know of everybody. Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain, and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving". This resonated with me.

I think the themes between Franklin's quote and The Republic overlap a bit. I'm reminded that Plato boils Justice down to essentially minding one's own business, and doing one's own duty. To me, criticism, condemnation, and complaining are acts of confession that you have your mind on somebody else's business. After all, if you want to change the world, you should start with the man in the mirror. If you speak all the good you know of everybody, then you will have no quarrels in life. 

I'm also reminded of Epictetus' wisdom where he says (and I'm paraphrasing), if any man points out my flaws then I should say "if only he knew all of my other flaws, he wouldn't stop at pointing out only these".

I'm trying to embrace this wisdom and catch myself when criticizing, condemning and complaining, even when talking to myself in my mind. Here's to minding our own business.