be tolerant in judging the opinions of others

Be tolerant in judging the opinions of others and moderate in expressing your own.

Baltasar Gracian, Spanish Jesuit of the seventeenth century

Commentary:

This is hard to accomplish at the height of election fever! Maybe I should have waited until next to week to post this one. I am not very moderate in expressing my opinion at times - something I should probably work on, because I think I often offend people inadvertently. While I don't really judge the opinions of others out loud, I do so secretly sometimes, and thoughts are one of the three producers of karma (words and action being the other two). I try to be open-minded toward other's beliefs, but I bet I could be even more tolerant than I am. However, I will not be swayed one iota in my opinion of who should win the presidential election! In fact I already voted, so its too late anyway. :)

I guess there's nothing wrong with having an opinion, as long as you don't force your opinion on others and you allow others to have their opinions too. Many of us talk to one another expressing opinions, expressing opinions, but often are only interested in hearing ourselves speak. We rarely take a moment to hear what the other person is saying. You never know when an opinion of someone else might actually help you to see things in a new light. If nothing else, being tolerant in others' opinions makes for smoother relations between people - which is why they say you should never talk about politics or religion at a cocktail party.

Have a great Halloween weekend!