Nobody's perfect, but, I believe that we should attempt (almost wrote "strive" but it's too early to strive for perfection... so I'll attempt to get close)... anyway... attempt to do the best we can.
What people sometimes overlook is that "the best we can" is influenced, not only by WHO we are, but, where we find ourselves, in place and time.
Aristotle did not have a watch, a TV, social media, or a cell phone... nor did Buddha, Ben Franklin, or Casey Stengel (Look him up... he DID have TV.).
I often wonder silly thoughts, such as, if they had, would they have said so many "wise" things, or would they have been distracted by time, led down primrose paths by entertainment, and lose their train of thought due to the interruptions of friends... not to mention becoming caught up in a whirlwind of cat videos?
In fact, who's to say that Aristotle's brother, or sister, (if he had one) wasn't the wiser of the two, but, got led astray and distracted at the local wine shop, or by a particularly licentious production of Oedipus Rex or, worse(?), Lysistrata?
The people from the past we view as villains or heroes, wise or foolish were molded and tempered by the fire and water of their time.
Some burned too brightly to view... or alone. Some were swept away by the flood... or turned away uncertain of their fate... or simply lost their way along one of the many paths life offered them.
Those that reached us over these decades or even millennia are the ones who made it somehow. No matter who they were, or how they got to us, they could only be who they were in the context of their time.
Us too.
Donovan Baldwin