As a young man, I had a summer job as messenger in the Pentagon, where General George C. Marshall subscribed to that same magazine. But General Marshall never received his copy until after I had read through the issue. Among the many bad things that we all do, this may not rank very high. It was not my magazine, even to delay for a few hours. I was just plain wrong and knew it.
Guilt is a bad feeling for the individual, but vitally important for society.
But remembering guilt has kept many of us from succumbing to temptations to do far worse things than some of the trivialities we felt guilty about. Guilt, like physical pain, serves a purpose. There are rare individuals who feel no pain from things that would have the rest of us in agony. It might seem that being pain-free would be a great blessing, but it turns out to be a curse to these people. Those who do not feel pain must have medical check-ups far more often than the rest of us.