Dostoevsky isn't simply endorsing humility—he's describing the mental habit that separates genuine intelligence from the brittle kind. The person who never questions their own judgment, who never entertains the possibility of foolishness, has already begun their decline into actual stupidity; they've stopped the examining that all real thinking requires. A surgeon who reviews her mistakes, a CEO who asks whether his latest decision was hasty, a parent who wonders if he's gotten it wrong—these people keep their minds alive and adaptive in ways that the perpetually confident never can.