Had we had half the empathy we have for other people for ourselves, we, the society, the humanity in general would be in a much better place. Interestingly enough, it requires a lot of effort to actually have that for ourselves.

The reason for that might be, deep inside, we don’t believe that we deserve empathy or care, because we judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their actions. For their actions, we make up a story of our choosing in a given situation. And we know our dark side and shortcomings and decide that it’s too much, and it’s not worth the trouble.