I

September   12th

BE  DOWN    TO  EARTH,  OR  BE  BROUGHT DOWN

“Zeno   always  said    that    nothing was more    unbecoming  than    putting on  airs,   especially  with    the

young.”

—DIOGENES   LAERTIUS,   LIVES   OF  THE EMINENT PHILOSOPHERS,   7.1.22

socrates’s famous letter to Demonicus (which later became the inspiration for Polonius’s “To thine
own self be true” speech) holds a similar warning to Zeno. Writing to the young man, Isocrates
advises: “Be affable in your relations with those who approach you, and never haughty; for the pride of
the arrogant even slaves can hardly endure.”
One of the most common tropes in art—from ancient literature to popular movies—is the brash and
overconfident young man who has to be taken down a peg by an older, wiser man. It’s a cliché because
it’s a fact of life: people tend to get ahead of themselves, thinking they’ve got it all figured out and are
better than those that don’t. It becomes so unpleasant to put up with that someone has to drop some
knowledge on them.
But this is an entirely avoidable confrontation. If the bubble is never inflated, it won’t need to be
popped. Overconfidence is a great weakness and a liability. But if you are already humble, no one will
need to humble you—and the world is much less likely to have nasty surprises in store for you. If you stay
down to earth, no one will need to bring you—oftentimes crushingly so—back down.