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Your life falls apart all in one day. Your sister killed. Your lover fled. Your brother, estranged.
Maybe that's why the sin that follows you ever after is the sin of acedia. Sloth. You had decades before Gellert rose to power to try to recover the blood pact, but you let him keep it. You remained ensconced in your castle. The pact was destroyed in 1932, and you still waited until 1945 to duel him. It was easier to keep putting it off.
You met Tom Riddle, and when he used a wordless Imperius on you, you rightly discovered a budding dark wizard. But you did not teach him the difference between right and wrong when you set his wardrobe on fire. You used a harsh method to gain his compliance - and taught him that might makes right, and that he'd need to become more powerful before he could set himself against you. It was easier to use force.
When you saw students being petrified, you rightly suspected Riddle. But you didn't find a way to track Riddle's movements and discover the Chamber's entrance. You allowed Hagrid to take the fall, because it was too much work to save him. It was easier to accept the scapegoat.
After he had murdered a student, you allowed Tom Riddle to become Head Boy. You were Deputy Headmaster. You couldn't prevent that? You couldn't sway the vote towards another candidate, one who hadn't committed murder? It was easier to let Riddle shine.
You finally defeated your ex-lover, saw him imprisoned, and were handed office after office. Did you ever perform any of them with care? Did it never occur to you that Headmaster might be a full time job that might disqualify one from serving as the head of magical parliament? No? Which job did you neglect?
Headmaster of Hogwarts, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, Supreme Mugwump of the I.C.W.
It must have been easier to accept every accolade.
As Headmaster of Hogwarts you had the power to turn Tom Riddle down when he came to apply for a job. But why did you allow him enough time to wander the castle, lay a curse, and hide a horcrux? What were you thinking? Was it easier to let him make his own way out?
You allowed Rubeus Hagrid to become Groundskeeper, but made no effort to help him return to education or clear his name. You allowed a singular werewolf to attend Hogwarts. Just one. Why only one? It must have been easier not to bother.
Then you added Leader of the Order of the Phoenix when the war with Lord Voldemort began. And since you were the Headmaster of a school, you recruited mainly school students.
It was easier to use child soldiers.
When Lord Voldemort was destroyed by no means of yours, you took the orphaned child and put him on a doorstep.
You wrote a letter.
You could have given Petunia Dursley the dignity of telling her yourself that her sister was dead.
She found out by a letter, delivered with a baby.
You could have pressed the doorbell.
It must have been easier not to.