CHAPTER 1
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S DILEMMA
Hundreds of years of expansion resulted in a vast territory inwhich its people lived in peace, united by a common tongue. Itsmilitary was the mightiest on the planet. No other nation couldequal its wealth. It was the global leader in technology. Yet as theprosperity of the republic grew, the moral excellence of its elite faded.Adventures abroad brought the promise of greater glory but also theplague of war without end. Higher taxes on the wealthy failed to satisfythe growing appetite of a large bureaucracy. Transformed by anew set of leaders and transfixed by power, a once-proud republicbecame an arrogant empire.
For the revolutionary Founders of America, Rome's examplewas both familiar and unsettling. Having read Edward Gibbon'sThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, America'sFounding Fathers sought to learn from his conclusions so that theirnew nation would avoid the imperial fate of Rome. "Immoderategreatness," Gibbon wrote, caused it to fall. Early Americans knewthat for their enterprise to become great, humility would be necessary.They also knew that of all the virtues of the human heart,humility is the most hard-won.
No one is naturally humble, but pride comes as easily to us assleeping or smiling. My wife and I can see that almost every day in thelives of our two sons. In one unforgettable moment several years ago,our older boy reached an infant's peak of pride. Sitting upright withoutany assistance—flexing his flabby muscles of independence—ourlittle explorer looked like he had summited Everest. An explosion ofpride lit his face. Beaming, my wife and I reflected that pride back toour baby. "We're so proud of you!" we exclaimed.
It is a phrase a fortunate child will hear often enough to enlargehis heart but not so frequently as to swell his head. Just as pridecomes naturally to human beings, so too does arrogance—or pridethat exceeds the reality of one's merit. Arrogant people celebrate theirown existence above all else and enlarge their own orbit at others'expense. To be proud of one's accomplishments, family, or countrymakes sense only if they are worthy of that pride. Healthy prideis tied to truth, and pride devoid of merit is arrogance. Humility'sopposite is arrogance, not pride.
Though the virtue of humility is occasionally praised in somefaraway tribe, remote religious order, or politician's rural birthplace,the reality of our fame-addled and power-hungry existence todaymeans that arrogance is rewarded and humility is ignored. Ego tripsare occasions for everyday media adulation. Cocksure, supercilious,and narcissistic displays of arrogance abound in every arena of life,while acts of humility go unnoticed and unheralded.
Our age of arrogance obscures the idea that humility is theindispensable virtue for the achievement of greatness. The personalsignificance of this idea is radical: to be truly great, one hasto be humble. The political significance of this idea is profound: tobe truly and enduringly great, a nation's hallmark must be humility.For Americans, this idea should have immense consequence, forour greatest moments have been marked by humility. Our futureshould be informed by that past. The lives of George Washington,James Madison, Abigail Adams, Abraham Lincoln, and FrederickDouglass have much to teach us about humility. Surprising as it mayseem, "American humility" is not an oxymoron.
"IT'S HARD TO BE HUMBLE"
It's not easy at first glance to see how humility could ever lead togreatness. Humility hardly seems that good, let alone great. Implyingsomething lacking—a loss of strength or a sapping of vitality—humilityoften strikes modern individuals as something to be avoided. Observedsuperficially, humility can appear weak and passive—anything but great.Greatness seems strong and energetic—anything but humble. "It's hardto be humble," Muhammad Ali is reported to have said, "when you'reas great as I am."
Humility is hard to achieve, even when you're not "the Greatest."It's more difficult to be great and humble at the same time. After all,humility requires exacting and often painful self-knowledge for anyperson but especially for one who thinks himself great. The humbleperson must acknowledge that he is not self-made, nor at the centerof the universe. Unblinkered self-knowledge reveals our imperfections.Humility requires that we admit when we are wrong and thenchange course. It is the soul's state of self-knowledge in which we putothers ahead of ourselves in thought, word, and deed—despite ourtendency to self-aggrandizement.
The true power of humility is missed by many successful peopletoday. Why should I become a wimp? the hard-charging individualwonders. Believing that humble folks must be shy and retiring,never forceful or magnetic, today's achievers cannot imagine themselvesever sitting on the sidelines. Humble people, they think,have poor self-esteem and probably even hate themselves. They'repushovers—meek, timid, and weak. To become humble in politics,business, or even in daily life is to give up on the possibility ofimpressive achievement.
In reality, humility is strength, not weakness. It is the crownof the virtues. Humility enables courage and points wisdom inthe right direction. It is the backbone of temperance, and it makeslove possible. Writing in the fifth century, Saint Augustine insistedthat all people are capable of wearing this crown: "[T]his way isfirst humility, second humility, third humility ... if humility doesnot precede and accompany and follow every good work we do,"Augustine cautions, "and if it is not set before us to look upon, andbeside us to lean upon, and behind us to fence us in, pride will wrestfrom our hand any good deed we do while we are in the very act oftaking pleasure in it."
Six centuries after Augustine, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux wasasked to identify the four cardinal virtues. His purported answer:"Humility, humility, humility, and humility."
"OVERBEARING, AND RATHER INSOLENT"
You don't have to be a saint in order to see the strength of humility.Long before he helped found a new nation, the twenty-seven-year-oldBenjamin Franklin embarked on what he called "the bold andarduous project of arriving at moral perfection." Impressed by thepower of reason, Franklin decided that since he had knowledge ofright and wrong, he could habituate himself always to do the rightthing. Franklin's first step in his project was to list the virtues hewould perfect. Temperance, silence, order, resolution, and frugalitywere the first five, followed by industry, sincerity, justice, moderation,and cleanliness. Tranquility and chastity made for a list oftwelve, but a friend urged Franklin to add one more.
What Franklin's unnamed friend told him had to hurt a little,for as the Philadelphian wrote in his Autobiography, the man"kindly informed me that I was generally thought proud; that mypride showed itself frequently in conversation." Not content just towin an argument, Franklin sought to punish his interlocutors, hisfriend told him. Franklin was "overbearing, and rather insolent"—aprime example of unhealthy pride. The solution for Franklinquickly became obvious: he would add humility as the thirteenthvirtue he would tackle. Humility's dictate according to Franklinwas simple to state, if not easy to do: "Imitate Jesus and Socrates."
Franklin formulated a careful plan of attack for all thirteen virtues.Take the first, temperance, remember its basic idea ("Eat notto dullness; drink not to elevation"), and work on it with specialvigilance for a week. Acts of intemperance would earn a "little blackspot" in Franklin's little book of virtues. An unspotted page ontemperance would indicate mastery. Each week would bring anothervirtue into focus, even as Franklin continued to work on the virtuesfrom preceding weeks. With thirteen virtues, the virtue-a-week programallowed for four full cycles each year. Annual repetition of this"self-examination," he hoped, would make him into a self-governingindividual.
Despite the pleasure he took from his project, Franklin admittedthat humility proved the most elusive virtue of all: "I cannotboast of much success in acquiring the reality of this virtue; but Ihad a good deal with regard to the appearance of it." In this, at least,he was partly successful, for as Franklin moderated his tone in argumentation,he started not just winning arguments but also winningpeople over to his causes. This humility in rhetoric worked wonders,Franklin found. Looking back over the course of his life, Franklinclaimed that his efforts at becoming more humble were rewarded.Whether in making proposals for "new institutions, or alterationsin the old," Franklin attributed his success to his continued exertions.Calling himself a "bad speaker, never eloquent," even proneto stumbling, Franklin discovered that his fifty years of effort athumility produced a considerable power of persuasion.
Though he made progress in checking his pride, Franklin foundthat its temptation endured. Healthy pride can become harmfularrogance if a person is unguarded against it. At the same time, thistemptation grew for the new nation. "In reality," Franklin wrote in1784, "there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdueas pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortifyit as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and thenpeep out and show itself." This conclusion made sense to Franklinbecause he had wrestled with pride so much in his own life. "[Y]ou willsee [pride], perhaps, often in this history," he wrote in his autobiography,at the age of seventy-eight, "for, even if I could conceive that I hadcompletely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility."
Franklin's dilemma is America's dilemma. Pride is a national,as well as a personal, challenge. Though Franklin's autobiographywas written before the United States had a great deal about which tobe proud, that struggle would intensify as America ascended to newheights of power and wealth. Learning how to become humble—andstay humble—was a perennial challenge. Like the young Franklin,young America possessed an extraordinary ambition for significance.Both aspired to be great. How can a nation be humble andstay humble while at the same time achieving greatness?
Whether ancient or modern, political rule is more often associatedwith an exertion of arrogance than a demonstration of humility. Whenwe speak of politicians and humility, it is often to refer to the "roots"of one who rises up from poverty. When a politician talks of humility,it is often after a stinging defeat or a stunning victory. Invariably, nomatter the outcome, a politician is proud of his campaign. And inevitably,in our current climate, political opponents cast each other as thearchetype of arrogance. The old saying that a statesman is a dead politicianmight be updated: a statesman is a politician with humility.
"THE EXCELLENCE OF HUMILITY"
The five humble heroes featured in this book—Washington, Madison,Adams, Lincoln, and Douglass—are proof that greatness and humilityneed not be opposed to each other. All five individuals were great insoul and humble at the same time. The thirteenth-century theologianSaint Thomas Aquinas argued that humility and the highvirtue of magnanimity, or greatness of soul, are twins. Magnanimityguides the gaze of great individuals to the heights. Humility issues awarning against flying too high. As Thomas stated about humility, it"represses rather than adopts a pushful and self-confident temper."
Pushful. That word captures much about human striving."Pushful" people seek greater power and recognition at the expenseof others. They are puffed up with their own worth. The men andwomen of American history profiled here were not immune to"pushfulness" or puffery. They were not born humble any more thanthey were born great. Humility came no easier to them than it did toFranklin. The trials and temptations they faced were unrelenting.
Had George Washington let pride get the best of him, the worldmight remember him as the man who betrayed the Revolution bycrowning himself king. James Madison was tagged as weak andtimid, but the humility he learned as a brilliant legislator helped himmold the new nation. Without the humility that made her so resilient,Abigail Adams might have despaired at the plight of women asa whole. Instead, Adams made the best of her abilities and her situationand helped rear a young republic.
If Abraham Lincoln had not humbled himself, he might havebecome a dictator. In preserving the Union and ending slavery,Lincoln lived up to the humility of the American Founders andgave the generations that followed—black and white—a worthysense of pride in their nation. If Frederick Douglass had abandonedthe humility he acquired in the midst of humiliations, he mighthave become embittered and unforgiving. If pride had gotten thebetter of him, he might have lost all goodwill for his fellow citizens.Instead, keeping pride in check, he upheld hope—for himself, hisfamily, those previously ensnared by slavery, and all Americans.Humility helped him reach many who otherwise might not havelistened to the message of equality and liberty for all.
Before we explore these examples of extraordinary humility,however, we need to examine the nature of the virtue itself. Thenext two chapters will provide a condensed history of humility,starting with Socrates and Aristotle in ancient Greece, then movingto the words and example of Christ, then to Augustine and the fallof Rome in the fifth century after Christ, and still later to Aquinas,Machiavelli, and Thomas Hobbes.
After the fall of Rome, Augustine wrote the City of God "to convincethe proud of the power and excellence of humility, an excellencewhich makes it soar above all the summits of this world, which sway intheir temporal instability, overtopping them all with an eminence notarrogated by human pride, but granted by divine grace." Humilityoffers the promise of excellence, but it does not guarantee power whenpower is the proud domination of human beings. The power promisedby humility is power over oneself in self-government. It is muchharder to achieve. Humility's strength is hidden, obscured by ourblindness and the age of arrogance in which we live.
CHAPTER 2
JESUS AND SOCRATES
Benjamin Franklin set out to "imitate Jesus and Socrates" in hisquest to be more humble. In describing his dilemma—andAmerica's—Franklin did not tell his readers exactly what hisimitatio entailed. Did the lives of Jesus and Socrates teach him thesame lesson regarding humility? Or did they represent differentaspects of this vital virtue? Could a person be humble and have agreat soul at the same time? Franklin says much in his Autobiographyabout his process of self-improvement, but he does not delineate theprecise role the examples of Socrates and Jesus played in his plan.
The history of humility is a crooked line, for the classical andChristian ideas of the virtue are at odds with each other. For manyleading Greek and Roman thinkers, humility was not even a virtuein the way Christianity later conceived it. According to Aristotle—whoseteacher, Plato, was a student of Socrates—the great-souled ormagnanimous man answers to no one but himself. He seeks virtueand is awarded the highest honor for his greatness. But according toAugustine, writing some 750 years after Aristotle, the idea of a great-souledman acting independently of God was the height of arrogance.A humble prince, Augustine insisted, must bow before God and othercitizens who are not as worthy as he is of honor. Like Aristotle's magnanimousman, the humble prince seeks virtue, but his virtue, unlikethat of the magnanimous man, is marked by compassion, mercy, andprayer—not pride in his own accomplishments or honors accorded byothers. Augustine's ideal prince is a servant.
Niccolò Machiavelli, writing a millennium after Augustine,concluded that both Aristotle and Augustine were wrong. Theancient pagans held a pie-in-the-sky view of politics where virtuewas the goal and honor was the reward. This view, Machiavelli held,neglected the fact that most human beings are not morally upright;they are moved by power, not virtue. Ancient Christians were nomore realistic: their kingdom was not even of this world! How couldChristianity expect to make princes capable of keeping power orcitizens capable of wanting powerful princes? Machiavelli's leader iswilling to embrace a certain kind of pride and yet pretend to be humbleif it serves his interest. Arrogance would be folly, not because it ismorally wrong, but because it is ineffective. For Machiavelli, executinggood rule meant the death of heartfelt humility.
