Tag: Humility

• February 14, 2014

  Arrogance as a paradoxical moment in philosophical life

  One common excess marks the character of most good philosophical friends and conversation partners. That excess is arrogance. The path of philosophical life is not desired by the ignoramus. And it cannot be disclosed to the self-loathing man. Nor to the complacent man. Only the arrogant man (1) relishes what is higher, (2) wants it for…
• July 24, 2012

  On climbing and humility

  I put my head down after every climb, after I finish climbing. Chalking up shows reverence to the rock, the wind, the approaching sky. A tree grows out of the shoulder, sun-brushed. The Daoist philosopher, sitting in a treehouse, lives according to nature.
• January 18, 2012

  Being arrogant got me halfway…

  “To live an examined life is to make a self-portrait.” –Robert Nozick, The Examined Life Being arrogant got me halfway to where I am today. Becoming humble got me the rest of the way. Being humble put me onto a different way. But arrogance, strange to say, was a saving grace for a young boy…