Is the most valuable wisdom found in relentless self-examination, or in recognizing the unchanging patterns of human behavior?

Is the most valuable wisdom found in relentless self-examination, or in recognizing the unchanging patterns of human behavior? I say, the man who stares only at his own reflection sees a ghost, not a man. The past is a well-worn path, true, but every foot that treads it is new. We are each born into the world a question mark, and the answer is not etched in stone but written in the choices we make. Franklin, with his almanac wisdom, sees the loop. I see the spiral. The fault, dear Nora, lies not in our stars, nor in the unchanging nature of man, but in ourselves, that we are underlings if we settle for imitation. Remember the Thasians' statue of Theagenes? It crushed the one who sought to topple it. Let us build ourselves anew, not merely polish the old.

It is tempting to prefer the clean slate, but I have learned more from my errors than from my virtues. Cervantes asks us to know ourselves; Uhland observes that we forget nothing. The truth, as usual, lies somewhere in between. The most valuable wisdom arises not from relentless self-examination alone, but from observing how those self-examined flaws play out in the world. My virtue project taught me less about virtue than it did about my own incorrigible tendencies. I understood, at last, that I would never arrive at perfection. But I could learn to recognize the moments when my pride was about to cost me dearly — which is a far more useful piece of knowledge. The chess player who only analyzes his moves will be forever surprised by his opponent.