Because it is a background virtue, humility (derived from the Latin for ‘low’) is best described in terms of what it isn’t. It isn’t ambitious, holds no opinions, declines to judge, has no enemies, does nothing unnecessarily, is unconcerned with image, doesn’t need notes.
We are isolated and diminished by our beliefs. Let’s say I believe that I am a good man. Straightaway I have a problem. Every time I turn around, I see a bad man.
Do the means justify the end? Here again is ego’s bent tendency to divide and militarize. The fact is, cause and effect are not separate. In every case, the means are the end.
If I am ready at a moment’s notice to blow your head off, I hate myself. Military veterans kill themselves twice as often as civilians. Doctors frequently cite PTSD. But this is misleading.
Counter-phobic fear—fear that looks like anger but isn’t—needs enemies to rationalize its own existence. When enemies are needed, enemies are everywhere. Sometimes a whole country is our enemy. Nation-scaled enemies goose our economies. It costs US$3 million to build a Patriot Missile.
Men's Work 