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Do you know someone you would like to change and regulate and improve? Good! That is fine. I am all in favor of it. But why not begin on yourself? From a purely selfish standpoint, that is a lot more profitable than trying to improve others, and a lot less dangerous. "Don't complain about the snow on your neighbor's roof," said Confucius, "when your own doorstep is unclean." When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices, and motivated by pride and vanity.
有什么人是你很想改變、調教或提高的嗎？好的！這很好。我完全贊成。但是你為什么不從自己開始呢？自私地說，這比企圖改造他人要有利得多，而且風險要小得多。孔子曾說過：“你自己家門口的雪還沒有掃干凈，就別埋怨別人屋頂上的了。”和人打交道的時候，千萬要記住，我們不是在和有邏輯的動物打交道，而是在和有感情的動物打交道，他們會因為偏激而怒發沖冠，并且受驕傲和虛榮所驅動。
Bitter criticism caused the sensitive Thomas Hardy, one of the finest novelists ever to enrich English literature, to give up forever the writing of fiction. Criticism drove Thomas Chatterton, the English poet, to suicide.
托馬斯·哈代是一位對英國文學作出很大貢獻的優秀小說家，可是尖刻的批評卻使這位對批評十分敏感的作家不再寫小說。批評甚至讓英國詩人托馬斯·查特頓自殺身亡。
Benjamin Franklin, tactless in his youth, became so diplomatic, so adroit at handling people, that he was made American Ambassador to France. The secret of his success? "I will speak ill of no man," he said, "...and speak all the good I know of everybody."
本杰明·富蘭克林年輕的時候也不懂圓通，但后來變得很有外交家風范，很善于與人交往，并因此被任命為美國駐法大使。他成功的秘密是什么呢？“我從不說別人壞話，”他說，“……我只說他們的優點。”
