… Observing "the falsity of our judgments, so far as they presume to decide in an absolute way on the value of other persons' conditions or ideals," observing "how soaked and shot-through life is with values and meanings which we fail to realize because of our external and insensible point of view," observing how often and how readily we judge the outward choices of others while losing sight of the "inward significance" of those choices, James writes:
The first thing to learn in intercourse with others is non-interference with their own peculiar ways of being happy, provided those ways do not assume to interfere by violence with ours. No one has insight into all the ideals. No one should presume to judge them off-hand. The pretension to dogmatize about them in each other is the root of most human injustices and cruelties, and the trait in human character most likely to make the angels weep.
Complement with Joan Didion on learning not to mistake self-righteousness for morality, then revisit William James on the psychology of attention, how our bodies affect our feelings, and the four features of transcendence.
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