Can 'winning your case' sometimes be more important than love and honesty?

But don't we do this in small ways in our live everyday? Perhaps I shouldn't extrapolate my situation to everyone else but I make excuses to justify my position, frown (internally) on people who I think are less than me, yell at my child for doing something childish (it's wrong but I do it sometimes). It's not like winning a litigation but it's making small choices in these minute internal struggles that happens all the time in my mind, heart and actions.