To Love Yet See Faults, to Dislike Yet See Merits

To Love Yet See Faults, to Dislike Yet See Merits

“Thus, those who love yet know the faults of what they love, and dislike yet know its merits, are rare under Heaven.” The sentence comes from the Great Learning in the Book of Rites. Here, “love” and “dislike” are verbs, while “rare” describes how difficult such judgement is.

The surrounding passage says that people become partial towards those they love, despise, fear, pity or treat with indifference. The sentence does not ask us to abolish feeling. It asks us not to let feeling make the whole judgement. When assessing a friend, an opponent or an argument we already favour, one useful question remains: have I applied two standards to the same fact because of closeness or distance?

https://ccr.sdufe.edu.cn/info/1006/1025.htm


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