Education Quote by John Jewel

Humility is not just a moral nicety; it is the precondition for learning. To learn is to accept that our current grasp of things is partial, that our judgments can be revised, that we might be wrong. Pride resists correction, interprets every counterexample as an annoyance, and treats questions as threats. Humility welcomes evidence, invites critique, and listens before answering. Without that posture, information may pile up, but understanding does not deepen; facts become ornaments for self-justification rather than tools for discovery. The line draws a stark lesson: arrogance does not merely slow learning, it nullifies it.

John Jewel wrote and preached during the English Reformation, serving as bishop of Salisbury and authoring the influential Apology of the Church of England. His world was charged with controversy, where rival confessions claimed certainty and authority. Against that backdrop, humility was not a call to timidity but a disciplined way of seeking truth. For Jewel, it was theological and intellectual at once: a reverent acknowledgment of God and Scripture, and a sober awareness of human fallibility, including the church’s own. In debates with Roman Catholic opponents such as Thomas Harding, his appeal was not simply to win points but to return to sources, to argue from evidence, and to stand ready to be corrected by the better reading. He understood that without the teachable spirit, reform hardens into faction, and zeal becomes noise.

The insight travels well beyond the sixteenth century. In science, scholarship, leadership, and ordinary conversation, humility keeps curiosity alive and makes collaboration possible. It enables us to ask better questions, to change our minds when reality pushes back, and to distinguish wisdom from mere opinion. The paradox is that the more we truly learn, the more reasons we find for humility, and the more humility we practice, the more we are able to learn.