How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question

by Michael Schur

In her masterwork, Ordinary Vices, she makes a compelling argument that cruelty—not pride or envy or wrath or any of the other classic “deadly sins”—is actually the worst human vice, and should be placed atop the list of things to avoid.

“Where do you draw the line?!” as if merely pointing out its blurriness absolves us from trying to bring it into focus. But as the comedian John Oliver likes to say: somewhere. We draw it somewhere. You and I may draw it in different places, but we need to draw it, each of us, for ourselves.

Know thyself. Nothing in excess.