Thus we should be wrong if we had said hastily that there is no humility typical of our time.
The truth is that there is a real humility typical of our time; but it so happens that it is practically a more poisonous humility than the wildest prostrations of the ascetic.

The old humility was a spur that prevented a man from stopping; not a nail in his boot that prevented him from going on.

For the old humility made a man doubtful about his efforts, which might make him work harder.

But the new humility makes a man doubtful about his aims, which will make him stop working altogether.
At any street corner we may meet a man who utters the frantic and blasphemous statement that he may be wrong.

Every day one comes across somebody who says that of course his view may not be the right one.