"So let's be honest with ourselves and not take ourselves too serious, and never condemn the other fellow for doing what we are doing every day, only in a different way"
About this Quote
Rogers slips a moral lecture into a homespun wink, the kind of line that sounds like porch talk until it quietly indicts you. The opener, "let's be honest with ourselves", is a classic setup for self-improvement, but he immediately undercuts any sanctimony with "not take ourselves too serious". That small grammatical looseness is part of the charm: he performs humility as he delivers a scalpel.
The real target arrives in the second clause. "Never condemn the other fellow" isn’t a generic call for kindness; it’s a warning about hypocrisy as a social sport. Rogers assumes we are already doing the thing we dislike in others "every day" - not occasionally, not accidentally, but as routine. The twist is "only in a different way": he’s not arguing people are identical, he’s arguing that moral judgment thrives on superficial distinctions. We excuse our own behavior as necessity, nuance, or personality, then punish someone else for the same impulse wearing a different costume.
Context matters. As an actor and public humorist in early 20th-century America, Rogers made a career out of sounding nonthreatening while poking at civic self-righteousness - in politics, in class snobbery, in the era’s shifting norms. The line’s intent is social disarmament: lower the ego, and you lower the need to prosecute strangers as a way to feel clean. It’s empathy, yes, but also a demand for consistency - a joke that lands because it catches you mid-sentence, already drafting the condemnation.
The real target arrives in the second clause. "Never condemn the other fellow" isn’t a generic call for kindness; it’s a warning about hypocrisy as a social sport. Rogers assumes we are already doing the thing we dislike in others "every day" - not occasionally, not accidentally, but as routine. The twist is "only in a different way": he’s not arguing people are identical, he’s arguing that moral judgment thrives on superficial distinctions. We excuse our own behavior as necessity, nuance, or personality, then punish someone else for the same impulse wearing a different costume.
Context matters. As an actor and public humorist in early 20th-century America, Rogers made a career out of sounding nonthreatening while poking at civic self-righteousness - in politics, in class snobbery, in the era’s shifting norms. The line’s intent is social disarmament: lower the ego, and you lower the need to prosecute strangers as a way to feel clean. It’s empathy, yes, but also a demand for consistency - a joke that lands because it catches you mid-sentence, already drafting the condemnation.
Quote Details
| Topic | Humility |
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