self-righteous

everyone makes mistakes. it's a known fact. the holier-than-thou individuals have committed slip-ups one after another, maybe even more. so in terms of moral fiber, no one is above others… unless of course one has that self-righteous spirit. as they say, the greatest enemy to human souls is the self-righteous spirit. it's that feeling of smug moral superiority derived from a sense that one's beliefs, actions, or affiliations are of greater virtue than those of the average person, according to wikipedia. dictionary.com says that self-righteous is someone who is confident of one's own righteousness, especially when smugly moralistic and intolerant of the opinions and behavior of others.

it's perfectly fine to blurt out an honest opinion. but it's another thing when you try to influence others by arrogantly and smugly exclaiming that you are always right. unsolicited advices are usually unwelcome and often taken out of context. so if one thing or whatever works for you, one should avoid superiorly articulating any self-righteous ideas. as colonel potter of MASH puts it, "there's a right way and a wrong way to do everything and the wrong way is to keep trying to make everybody else do it the right way." one does not have the monopoly of good deeds or ideas. remember, what works on one isn’t always going to work on the other.

self-righteous individuals easily condemn other people, reviling others who may have taken other routes and committed (double) faults along the way. to make things worse, these individuals often forget their own missteps and would habitually proclaim their own snootiness while also putting a high degree of premium on themselves and lay an immeasurable level of self-importance on themselves. while some may have been lucky in life and lead a good life, this doesn't make anyone a citadel of principled standards.

as moliere says, "one should examine oneself for a very long time before thinking of condemning others." dale turner aptly sums it up, "in all the work we do, our most valuable asset can be the attitude of self-examination. It is forgivable to make mistakes, but to stand fast behind a wall of self-righteousness is not forgivable."