This quote by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. talks to the concept that it is frequently easier to judge the actions of besides it is to judge our own. It implies that when reviewing a circumstance, it is easy to see what the best strategy must have been, but it is typically much more difficult to make the best choice in the minute. This quote suggests that hindsight is 20/20, and that it is simple to be righteous in retrospection. It is a pointer that we must strive to make the right choices in the present, even if it is challenging, due to the fact that it will be much easier to evaluate our actions in the future.
"While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings"