Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Contempt for Humanity

Being an exceedingly judgemental, aversive, weary and arrogant person, I am in need of reminders like this. This is also admirably succint, saying much in few sentences: "There is a very real danger of our drifting into an attitude of contempt for humanity....the following thoughts may keep us from such a temptation: The man who despises another will never be able to make anything of him. Nothing we despise in the other is entirely absent from ourselves. We often expect more from others than we are willing to do ourselves...We must learn to regard others less in regard to what they do or do not do and more in the light of what they suffer. The only profitable relationship to others is one of love, and that means the will to hold fellowship with them. God himself did not despise humanity, but became man for mens sake." -Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison