There is a catch 22 to humility.
Did you know that?
Let’s try not to fall for it.
See, humility and pride are essentially two sides of the same coin.
- You are humble.
- You are so low and perfect.
- And then you start becoming proud about it.
I see only one thing to do at the moment. Your patient has become humble; have you drawn his attention to the fact? All virtues are less formidable to us once the man is aware that he has them, but this is specially true of humility. Catch him at the moment when he is really poor in spirit and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, ‘By jove! I’m being humble’, and almost immediately pride—pride at his own humility—will appear. If he awakes to the danger and tries to smother this new form of pride, make him proud of his attempt—and so on, through as many stages as you please. But don’t try this too long, for fear you awake his sense of humour and proportion, in which case he will merely laugh at you and go to bed.
–C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
