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… is from page 14 of Will and Ariel Durant’s 1975 volume, The Age of Napoleon [2]; here they write about Robespierre what might accurately be written also about countless others:
He suffered severely from our common failing – he could not get his ego out of the way of his eyes.
DBx: As the Durants say, each of us is subject to being blinded by ego. And each of us is, at least on occasion, actually so blinded. But some of us fall victim to this hazard more frequently than do others. The best – only? – protection against this tendency comes from that elusive quality called “wisdom.” It does not come from mere mastery of abstract ideas. And it certainly doesn’t come from the accumulation of collegiate degrees. It comes from wisdom, a quality that implies humility.