Bob Schwartz

One of the most famous quotes about judging is from the Gospels:

Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.
Matthew 7:1

Despite that wisdom, Christians and others often tend to forget or ignore it. A lot of judging goes on.

Another similar perspective is taken in Buddhism, which is not to say that Buddhists don’t indulge in judging also.

A maxim from the classic 59 maxims of mind-training (lojong):

26. Don’t reflect on others’ shortcomings.

We should train our minds to see others as pure by thinking that when we see a fault in someone, it’s because we project imaginary faults onto others due to things appearing to be impure from our own side. Practicing in this way, we will be able to protect ourselves from the tendency to judge others.
Gomo Tulku (1922-1985), Seven Steps to Train Your Mind

This goes farther than the Christian message that we shouldn’t judge others because we might get judged back. We don’t judge because whatever the other is doing, we are looking in a mirror. We are pure, though our self-importance keeps us from knowing it. The other is pure, but is also kept from knowing it. Our role is not to judge, but to help them see it and help ourselves see it.

Note that no one suggests that we put our critical thinking in neutral. If we find that what we or others do, say or think might be better, we can point it out, provided our motivation is making things better, and not proving ourselves better and smarter.