"The worst men often give the best advice"

Sometimes morality and wisdom arise from different places. While it seems ideal to seek guidance from virtuous people, human experience shows that profound insight can come from those who themselves have failed to live up to their own guidance. People who are considered the "worst", those who have acted poorly, made grave mistakes, or committed wrongdoings, might actually see dangers more clearly and recognize pitfalls that others overlook. Their advice, born from personal experience, carries a depth and realism that abstract theorizing cannot match.

A flawed person has often felt the consequences of their choices. Having firsthand knowledge of temptation, selfishness, or error, they observe the causes and effects of destructive behavior intimately. Such individuals can warn others with a conviction that only comes from having suffered the results themselves. Their words carry the gravity of lived experience, not just dry lessons from books or theory. Paradoxically, while society may reject their actions, it overlooks the valuable insight they possess about how and why one should avoid similar mistakes.

Listening to advice purely based on the moral identity of the speaker may prevent people from considering hard truths. It is easy to believe that only the righteous have wisdom worth sharing, but sometimes guidance is richer, more urgent, and more practical when it comes from those who have jagged lives. There is also an element of humility required to accept that someone’s advice is sound, even when their character is unsound. Wisdom is not always bound to virtue; sometimes, those who have fallen the lowest are most aware of how one falls and what it takes to rise again. They may urge others away from a path they know is disastrous, providing warnings with sincerity and knowledge that the "best" people, lacking direct experience, cannot always supply.