A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying in other
words, that he is wiser today than yesterday.t is difficult to suppress our ego. When we achieve something great, we gloat over the success and feel that it is we who have achieved it. We tend to ignore or belittle the contribution of otherswhohavehadashareintheefforts to bring in the success or achievement. It is so because, we are egoistic. Even in times of loss or failure, ego is there but showsupinadifferentmanner.Ifwelose or fail, we throw the blame on others and make light of our own responsibility for the loss or failure. We search for pretexts and scapegoats and we find any number of them.
When a small boy distinguishes himself in an event his parents naturally feel elated about it. They think that there is no one like their son. But when he errs or treads evil paths they tend to feel that he is good, he is without blemishes; but he is spoiled by his friends. The fact may be the other way round. It may be that he has spoiled his friends.
We take all the credit on ourselves for our achievements and throw the blame on others for our failures. That is natural human tendency. What we fail to realize is that it is we who do good or bad to ourselves. If we stick to the path of righteousness, we elevate ourselves. If we stray from this path and adopt evil ways, it is we who degrade ourselves. It is wrong to fault others for our commissions or omissions. If we elevate and ennoble ourselves, we are our own friends. If we degenerate we are our own enemies.
Never do anything which you would not wish to do during the last hour of your life.One should elevate oneself by one’s own efforts and by no means degrade oneself; for one’s own self is one’s friend and one’s own self is one’s enemy.
Man is good when he raises very high his divine and spiritual “I”, but frightful when he wishes to exalt above men his fleshy “I” vain, ambitious and exclusive.
~ Tolstoy ~