September 20, 2026

We are not satisfied to be right, unless we can prove others to be quite wrong.

William Hazlitt (1778 – 1830), British essayist, The Cynic’s Lexicon, Jonathon Green, ed. (London: 1986), p. 94

MEDITATION: Assuming you are a politician, is this not the secondary benefit of winning some vote? Not only did you win, but the winning proved you right. But why is being right never enough unless someone else is wrong? Unless you can rub someone’s nose in something disagreeable?

COMMENTARY: Hazlitt exposes the ego behind moral certainty. Conviction without humility breeds fanaticism. The need to prove others wrong is simply vanity dressed up as virtue.

So, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being “not at all’, to 10 being “it’s non-stop”, tell me how much of that vanity dressed up as virtue do you see these days? In others? In yourself? Don’t fib!