Said Talleyrand: “Quand je me considère, je me désole. Quand je me compare, je me console.”
Somehow this translates better into classical Chinese than into English: 省己則困，方人則安。(First draft, correction by Gentle Reader barusk.) But the race is on for a decent English rendering.
I would have gone with 省己則困，方人則安．
Much improved; thanks for 則 and 方 . The parallelism is just what the doctor ordered, though, don’t you think?
Indeed it is. Normally 自省 (like 方人, a very old collocation) would be preferable, but parallelism wins out.