Humility

Petersen and Seligman give a lovely discussion of Humility in 'Character Strengths and Virtues'.


 By humility they don't mean a Uriah Heep sort of cloying obsequiousness and insincerity:

"When I was quite a young boy,' said Uriah, 'I got to know what umbleness did, and I took to it. I ate umble pie with an appetite. I stopped at the umble point of my learning, and says I, "Hard hard!" When you offered to teach me Latin, I knew better. "People like to be above you," says father, "keep yourself down." I am very umble to the present moment, Master Copperfield, but I've got a little power!"

Chapter XXXIX David Copperfield

Instead they are suggesting: 

'A non-defensive willingness to see the self accurately' 

'Humble individuals will not wilfully distort information in order to defend, repair or verify their own image'

People with this quality are more forgiving, more likeable and more likely to learn from experience.


This is clearly wise - and tough.  In order to let information about who we really are in, we need to learn to be genuinely compassionate towards ourselves and others.