“Every man bears the whole form of the human condition.”Michel de Montaigne · Eseuri · 1580 · III, 2
In judging another person, you are only reading your own hidden inventory.
Montaigne rejects the idea that there are ordinary people and exceptional ones with different natures. The mechanism: each of us holds the capacity for glory and shame, cruelty and gentleness; the proportions vary, the material is the same. When you judge a tyrant on the news, if you are honest, you recognize his seeds in your own envy or pride.
If each of us carries the whole of humanity, judging others becomes a mirror turned toward yourself. Montaigne does not say we are all equally cruel, only that we share the same material, mixed in different proportions. The next step is practical: before condemning, ask what in you could have grown into that same act. When you see a neighbor lying for a small advantage, do not stop at outrage. Look for the moment you stayed silent about an inconvenient truth. Recognition does not mean automatic forgiveness, but honesty in the act of judging. Only after checking what part of that person also lives in you does your word about them carry weight. But how do you run this check without deceiving yourself?
Why it matters An antidote to moral arrogance: before condemning someone, check which part of him also lives in you.