The-Conquest-of-Happiness-by-Bertrand-Russell

remember the ninety-nine times when you have
refrained from uttering the most just and welldeserved
criticism of him, and forget the hundredth
time when in an unguarded moment you have
declared what you believe to be the truth about
him. Is this the reward, you feel, for all your long
forbearance? Yet from his point of view your
conduct appears exactly what his appears to you;
he knows nothing of the times when you have not
spoken, he knows only of the hundredth time when
you did speak. If we were all given by magic the
power to read each other’s thoughts I suppose the
first effect would be that almost all friendships
would be dissolved; the second effect, however,
might be excellent, for a world without any friends
would be felt to be intolerable, and we should
learn to like each other without needing a veil of
illusion to conceal from ourselves that we did not
think each other absolutely perfect. We know that
our friends have their faults, and yet are on the
whole agreeable people whom we like. We find it,
however, intolerable that they should have the
same attitude towards us. We expect them to think