Being difficult to please is not a feature of a believer

Why does someone dislike an object and regard it as worthless? Someone living in a mansion, for instance, may not like an apartment and may criticize the décor. Yet an apartment block will seem like a palace for anyone who lives in a hovel, under much worse conditions.

Why does a person not admire someone else's intelligence? Because he believes himself to be far more intelligent. Why does a person not enjoy someone else's ideas? Because he has much better ones. Why does a person not value someone else's profession? Because he imagines that he possesses far greater abilities. Not liking things, therefore, generally means that one possesses a better version of them.

Therefore, those who wish to give the impression that they possess the best of everything never much care for anything. Even if they do like something, they never admit it and always try to find some fault to criticize. For example, someone who accompanies friends to a high-class restaurant will always look for something wrong with the food, or the décor, or the behavior of the waiters, even though he has never been to such a high-class restaurant all his life. He will imply that he's eaten in far superior places by offering such criticisms as "I didn't think the food was all that good. The view was very poor, and how did they do such decoration? It was distressing."

Whenever young girls see a more attractive rival, they always look for flaws to emphasize their own superiority. A girl who admires her own hair, if she sees someone with even prettier hair, will make criticisms like "Look at her hair, that style really doesn't suit her, and it looks a bit thin." When a tall girl sees another prettier, but slightly shorter girl, she will immediately seek to belittle her by saying how short she is.

Due to that mistaken mindset in ignorant societies, you'll never hear anyone praising anyone whom they perceive to be superior, more intelligent, attractive or talented. It is next to impossible to see a newspaper commentator praising other newsmen of roughly the same age, praising them as more intelligent, or saying that their analyses are more accurate than his own. It's equally rare for any artist to esteem another artist whom he regards as enjoying the same standing, or to admit that the other artist is more beautiful and talented. Rather, one generally sees fierce criticism raging between such people. For instance, one psychologist will not like the methods employed by another. A dietician will criticize the methods used by another dietician, and a television presenter will always find something to criticize in his rivals.