Integrity

He who closes his ears to the views of others shows little confidence in the integrity of his own views.
William Congreve

How often is it that we refuse to even listen to people who have a different opinion of something than we do. Some of us even go so far as to refuse to listen to someone who has a different viewpoint than ours talk about any subject at all. We return mail, or hang up the phone, never giving the other person an opportunity to even compromise with us or admit he was wrong. It's an enormous tragedy when people who were close to each other suddenly refuse to have anything to do with each other just because of some difference of opinion on something.

Beleiving that the other person has nothing to offer is essentially beleiving that you know everything there is to know about the subject. That there is nothing else to learn. But there is always something else to learn because nobody knows everything there is to know about any particular subject. Even themselves. And every person has a valid opinion. We just have to remember that they are all opinions, including our own, and not unchangeable, unarguable facts. The wise person welcomes all possible viewpoints as a way to extend the reach of his own.

He who closes his ears to the views of others shows little confidence in the integrity of his own views. He is likely to afraid at some level that he will be easy to sway away from his own views. That he will find out that they are wrong. Which suggests that he doesn't really beleive in them anyway. A person who really beleives that his views are part of who he really is does not fear being led away from them. He knows that they can only improve with the addition of more information. He knows that there is not some ultimate right answer out there, but that the right answer is the one that works for him. And that is always growing and changing with the circumstances; and with new information about those circumstances.