20-12-2020
Humility is a consequential virtue. Humility is a consequence of having real intellectual honesty and integrity, which in turn is a manifestation of unswerving commitment to truth. It is a fragrance, as it were, coming from the blossoming of intellectual honesty and integrity growing out of the root that is commitment to truth.
Thus, the antidote for arrogance is not humility, for being a consequential virtue, humility cannot be directly pursued. If you directly pursue or practice, that is, pretend, humility, you will only become a hypocrite, pretending to be humble but in reality arrogant or conceited. The only true antidote to arrogance is commitment to truth, and intellectual honesty and integrity you develop therefrom.
Another consequential virtue of your commitment to truth and intellectual honesty and integrity is wisdom—the discerning acumen with which you know what you know, what you don’t know, and the difference between the two. Therefore, you who are truly wise are also really humble, remaining always an eternal student of life.