Will Durant Quote - Liberty Quotes Blog

"To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves."

by:	Will Durant (1885-1981) American psychologist, philosopher
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Categories:	Integrity, Honesty, Hypocrisy, Ignorance, Speech
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Reader comments about this quote:

-- Mike, Norwalk
Oops, to quick on the button. Sometimes. To speak dishonestly of others, so as to praise ourselves, is definitely a sign of illness. To call evil - evil or a lie - a lie, is that dishonestly praising ourselves? probably not. -- Mike, Norwalk 1
So many believe that they can elevate themselves by lowering others around them. -- cal, lewisville, tx 1
To speak ill of,say, Hitler , Stalin , Harry Reid or Hillary is in no way praising ourselves. -- jim k, austin tx
But jim k, when political parties refer to their opposition as Nazi's, they ignore the fascism they have embraced for the last 80 years. Sure we can condemn Stalin and Hitler for their acts of genocide, but we conveniently ignore US military hegemony in dozens of foreign countries -- the US has killed MILLIONS of brown people in the last 25 years, and the religious right begs for more (with little opposition from the left). The best reform is SELF-reform -- and it starts with being honest with oneself. Religious/political/cultural arrogance is the source of war around the world. It's called self-righteousness. -- E Archer, NYC 1
Open rebuke is better than secret love. The quote stinks of neutrality by a psychologist. He was a socialist who termed people proletariat. Considering the coining of the word, I say no more. -- Ronw13, Yachats Or
Only to a point. -- Grover, Cadillac