Honesty is a good thing, but it is not profitable to its possessor unless it is kept under control.
Genius might be described as a supreme capacity for getting its possessors into trouble of all kinds.
There are many shining qualities on the mind of man; but none so useful as discretion. It is this which gives a value to all the rest, and sets them at work in their proper places, and turns them to the advantage of their possessor. Without it, learning is pedantry; wit, impertinence; virtue itself looks like weakness; and the best parts only qualify a man to be more sprightly in errors, and active to his own prejudice. Though a man has all other perfections and wants discretion, he will be of no great consequence in the world; but if he has this single talent in perfection, and but a common share of others, he may do what he pleases in his station of life.
A definite purpose, like blinders on a horse, inevitably narrows its possessor's point of view.