People are People

26. When people injure you, ask yourself what good or harm they thought would come of it. If you understand that, you'll feel sympathy rather than outrage or anger. Your sense of good and evil may be the same as theirs, or near it, in which case you have to excuse them. Or your sense of good and evil may differ from theirs. In which case they're misguided and deserve your compassion. Is that so hard?

I agree with the first two sentences entirely. However, where Marcus Aurelius believes it should be this way because everything follows the power of logos and moving outside this power harms people, I believe that all people have essentially the same core, and understanding the reason someone you dislike does something, allows you to see yourself in them, and in this way they become less an evil person and more someone to feel empathy for.

For example, if you overhear someone saying something bad about you, you tend to rush to the conclusion that they are a horrible person. However, if you consider the situation, you've probably felt the same urge to complain about people behind their backs if you feel you've been wronged.

We all have a natural tendency to assume we are always in the right, and see the faults in other people as if we have no faults of our own. For this reason we should not only analyze the actions of others, but our own actions as well. If we admit we are doing something for the wrong reason, we are less likely to judge others when they do the same.