Friends, Since we are engaged in a very contentious debate about the suffering and deaths of tens of thousands of kidney failure patients each year, it is easy to conclude that people who think differently than we do are not just wrong, but evil. Here is a reminder that we should instead look for the better angels of our nature. Frank

The Tendency to See the Bad in Others, Instead of the Good (excerpt) By Dina Gordon| May 14, 2026 Thinking of complaining? Think again. Philosophers have long shown why it’s wiser to see the good in others, even when they treat us badly. Even when the skies seem bleak and cloudy, the sun is always just on the other side. Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius said that even if one finds fault in another person, one should think twice before passing harsh judgment. A key philosopher of the Stoic school, Aurelius saw intrinsic worth and dignity in every person. In his writings, he reflected the idea that when we encounter someone who behaves badly, we should try to see things from their perspectives and remember that they may be acting out of mistaken perceptions rather than out of malice. In this way, we can be tolerant of them, just as we would hope others would be toward us. “For as every soul is unwillingly deprived of the truth, so also is it unwillingly deprived of the power of behaving to each man according to his deserts,“ Aurelius wrote. He later said, “For every man who errs misses his object and is gone astray.” Based on this understanding, Aurelius defined the role of the “wise person” as one who must guide the person who has sinned, thereby saving them from themselves, because a sinner who has lost their way is not absolved of wrongdoing. And one must speak to such a person with love and compassion that will soften their heart. “For what will the most violent man do to thee, if thou continuest to be of a benevolent disposition toward him, and if, as opportunity offers, thou gently admonishest him and calmly correctest his errors at the very time when he is trying to do thee harm, saying, Not so, my child: we are constituted by nature for something else: I shall certainly not be injured, but thou art injuring thyself, my child,” Aurelius wrote. “Show him with gentle tact and by general principles that this is so,” he added. Aurelius’s advice echoes the lesson about love and compassion in the famous novel “Les Misérables” by French writer Victor Hugo. The protagonist, Jean Valjean, is sentenced to a year in prison for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his widowed sister and her children. However, one year turns into 20, and he emerges from prison filled with resentment and hatred, eventually becoming a petty criminal. After Valjean is caught stealing silverware from a priest’s home, the priest sees his potential to be a good man and claims that he himself had given Valjean the silverware as a gift. The priest’s compassion melts Valjean’s heart, and he decides to change his ways. He establishes a factory with the money he received from the priest and becomes a wealthy man who donates generously to charity. At the climax of the novel, Valjean saves the life of the police officer who continued to see him as a criminal and pursued him throughout his life.

This is an excerpt from an article that was originally published by Epoch Magazine Israel.