Luke 18:9

9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

The second part of this verse always seems to go with the first part. I don't think it is possible to trust in ourselves that we are righteous without despising others, because, short of being perfect, the only way to call ourselves righteous is to have some standard to measure against. This standard is always some other poor guy or girl that we think we are better than.

Unfortunately, this happens to all of us, there are moments that we just feel like we are pretty good people. It might happen after we have made a charitable donation, or maybe after we finish praying for some time or have just read our Bible or when have just helped someone. When this happens, if we do some self examination, we will see that we are using someone as a standard to justify our good judgment of ourselves. We might even use ourselves from a former time. We might think, look at me, I never would have done something that good back in such and such year. This practice makes the least sense of all.

The Bible says that there is not one person who is righteous apart from Jesus Christ. If we accept that, our good deeds can be performed to His glory, and they won't inflate our opinion of ourselves. Then we can do good without the temptation of "despising others".