"The true rule, in determining to embrace, or reject any thing, is not whether they have any evil in it; but whether it have more of evil, than of good. There are few things wholly evil, or wholly good. Almost every thing, especially of governmental policy, is an inseparable compound of the two; so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded." - Abraham Lincoln
I need to remember this whenever I trip over aspects of another person's personality that happen to irritate me. People who "strongly encourage" me to do things, or respond in one-sentence e-mail replies, tend to rub against my grain. There's nothing particularly evil about it, I just happen to be an independent-minded and wordy person, and those habits contrast with my values. No one I've been close enough to encounter friction with is fundamentally unkind. All of them, actually, are very good people who show it in numerous ways. Those are the moments that keep perspective, that I fixate on, in the little moments when things get tough.
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