The Vice of Arrogance

Hugh of Saint Victor, On Study and Teaching

It behooves you not to despise others when you begin to know something. This vice of arrogance takes posession of some so that they contemplate their own knowledge too lovingly, and since they seem to themselves to be something, they think that others whom they do not know can neither be nor become such as they. Hence also these peddlers of trifles, boasting I do not know of what, accuse their ancestors of simplicity, and think that wisdom was born with them, and will die with them.

- Hugh of Saint Victor, On Study and Teaching

I’ve always enjoyed studying history, philosophy, and religion because of what these disciplines teach me about people. In fact, I switched to religious studies in the third year of my psychology degree because I felt like I wasn’t learning enough about actual humans in psychology itself.