What we are entitled to, we want to receive in writing, but we demand that others exercise their rights with restraint; we defend our position meticulously, but we want others to be humble and accommodating; we complain about our neighbor immediately, but no one should complain about us; when we do something for another, it always seems to us like a great kindness, but what he does for us seems trivial.
Filoteo, measure equally and be just in your actions; always put yourself in the position of your neighbor, and imagine him in your own place – this is how you will judge correctly; when buying, be like the seller, when selling, be like the customer – and you will sell and buy fairly. All these injustices are small, and therefore do not obligate to compensation (if we only demand what is advantageous for us), yet they do obligate us to improvement, for they are great deficiencies of reason and love…
(Francis de Sales /1567–1622/, Introduction to the Devout Life, part 3, chapter XXXVI)
