Humility: Why modern leaders need to resurrect this ancient virtue
The U.S. is suffering an epidemic of narcissism, fueling a rise in loneliness and despair. Empirical evidence supports what ancient wisdom declared — that humility is transformational and beneficial.
Many ancient thinkers have written about the dangers of arrogance. The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius warned against losing one’s modesty in The Meditations. Saint Augustine called pride the “origin of evil” in The City of God. Confucius said, “A superior man is modest in his speech but exceeds in his actions” in The Analects. Finally, the classic: “Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 16:18.
And yet, history remembers the greats and the conquerors, not the meek or the mild. CEOs and celebrities become icons for their charisma and grand lifestyles. Even ordinary people have become locked in a spiral of one-upmanship — endlessly outdoing each other with larger houses, sportier cars, and more luxurious vacation photos clogging up social media feeds.
Is humility truly a virtue, or were the ancients as wrong about it as they were witches and dragons living on the edges of the map?
To find out, we spoke with Daryl Van Tongeren, an associate professor of psychology at Hope College and the author of Humble.
The U.S. is suffering an epidemic of narcissism, fueling a rise in loneliness and despair. Empirical evidence supports what ancient wisdom declared — that humility is transformational and beneficial.
Many ancient thinkers have written about the dangers of arrogance. The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius warned against losing one’s modesty in The Meditations. Saint Augustine called pride the “origin of evil” in The City of God. Confucius said, “A superior man is modest in his speech but exceeds in his actions” in The Analects. Finally, the classic: “Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 16:18.
And yet, history remembers the greats and the conquerors, not the meek or the mild. CEOs and celebrities become icons for their charisma and grand lifestyles. Even ordinary people have become locked in a spiral of one-upmanship — endlessly outdoing each other with larger houses, sportier cars, and more luxurious vacation photos clogging up social media feeds.
Is humility truly a virtue, or were the ancients as wrong about it as they were witches and dragons living on the edges of the map?
To find out, we spoke with Daryl Van Tongeren, an associate professor of psychology at Hope College and the author of Humble.
