Wandering Thought #235: Righteousness
To be righteous is to say and do the right things out of compassion and wisdom for others. To be self-righteous is to say and do the wrong things out of self-centredness and delusion for oneself.
The tricky part is that before others, the self-righteous can be disguised as the righteous. The even trickier part is that before oneself, the self-righteous can mistaken themselves as being righteous. This is how personal justification of evil begins. (When the motivations are wrong in spirit, all actions are wrong in spirit.)