Maurine And Other Poems/True Culture

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The highest culture is to speak no ill,
The best reformer is the man whose eyes
Are quick to see all beauty and all worth;
And by his own discreet, well-ordered life,
Alone reproves the erring.

When thy gaze
Turns in on thine own soul, be most severe.
But when it falls upon a fellow-man
Let kindliness control it; and refrain
From that belittling censure that springs forth
From common lips like weeds from marshy soil.