Whenever you feel like criticizing any one

[sb70012]

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. "Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had." He didn’t say any more but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that.

Source: The Great Gatsby http://www.publicbookshelf.com/ficti...er-vulnerable

Hello friends,
I sort of can not paraphrase the blue part. This is my paraphrase:
The dad tells his son not to criticize others' pleasure because the son's pleasure was much more better than the others'.

Am I right?

Thank you

 

[SoothingDave]

Where do you get the idea of "pleasure" in that excerpt?

 

[sb70012]

Where do you get the idea of "pleasure" in that excerpt?

Because of the word "advantages"

 

[SoothingDave]

Well, "advantages" doesn't mean "pleasures."

The idea here is probably something like "remember that you have had many advantages and not everyone has shared in your good fortune."

I am not sure of the exact context, but it is saying not to criticize, for example, someone's English if they talk incorrectly. You may have had the finest teachers and they had little to no education.

Or someone who doesn't know the right spoon to use at a dinner party because they grew up in poverty.

Basically, if you have been born in good circumstances you should not criticize others who were not. You are not "better" than them, you have just been able to have things that they did not.