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But despite the fact that humanity arranges itself into hierarchies, and it is in your DNA to do that as well and to always consider your place in the hierarchy, it's also important not to compare yourself to anyone, other than the person you were yesterday. Our vision of other people is clouded by our own instinct for hierarchy, and our concern for our place in the hierarchy, and we fail to see other people's entire condition. We judge other people for their successes and we judge ourselves by our faults.
Richard Cory
by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
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