I never had words sharp enough.

From Faust I & II by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, edited by Stuart Atkins and David E. Wellbery. Page 239. Gretchen is facing the prospect of a child out of wedlock.

GRETCHEN (walking home).
How readily I once declaimed
when some poor girl did the wrong thing!
Worked up about the sins of others,
I never had words sharp enough.

What seemed so black, I blackened even more,
and yet that wasn’t black enough for me;
I’d cross myself, act high and mighty—
and now I’m prey to sin myself!

And yet, o God, what brought me to it,
was all so good, and oh so sweet!

The dilemma of all puritans. The standards to which they hold others eventually redound on them. We are all human. We are all prey to ills and failings. Best to be tolerant and treat people with respect because "There, but for the grace of God, go I." Instead the Jacobins morally preen and fail to understand why others are repulsed by their arrogance, ignorance, incivility, and puritanical hatred.

It is ironic that those most demanding of tolerance, inclusiveness, and respect are those least likely to extend it.