Self-compassion comes from recognizing that our imperfections are part of being human.

Contempt

The contempt I feel for others — for myself different, less internal than guilt.

It’s not that I think (or have ever thought) I was bad — through and through. I think I’m unattractive, unloveable, because I’m incomplete. It’s not what I am that’s wrong, it’s that I’m not more (responsive, alive, generous, considerate, original, sensitive, brave etc.).

My profoundest experience is of indifference, rather than censure.

We are always harshest upon those foibles we see in others that we know bedevil our own natures - the ones that most gravely misbecome our self image - for blame is always easier than shame.

Self-contempt is a serpent that ever gnaws at one's breath, sucking the life-blood from one's own heart and mixing it with the poison of misanthropy and despair.

We catch frightful glimpses of ourselves in the hostile eyes of others.

If we ever admit our shortcomings it is through vanity

It is, for example, axiomatic that we should all think of ourselves as being more sensitive than other people because, when we are insensitive in our dealings with others, we cannot be aware of it at the time: conscious insensitivity is a self-contradiction.

Nostalgia, more than anything, gives us the shudder of our own imperfection.

It is easy to see the faults of others, but difficult to see one’s own faults. One shows the faults of others like chaff winnowed in the wind, but one conceals one’s own faults as a cunning gambler conceals his dice.5

Efforts at self-vindication are a sign of their selfcondemnation.

We keep our insignificant blemishes so that we can blame them for our larger defects.

We judge others according to our image of
perfection as well, and naturally they fall short of our expectations.

Self-pity is an ignoble emotion, but we all feel it, and the orthodox critical line that it represents some kind of artistic flaw is dubious, a form of emotional correctness.

Each one of us finds in others the very faults others find in us