My dear,

If you’re trying to better yourself don’t go about it by the path most take, the one of trying to be smarter than everyone else. This is a path that leads you to mock other who you deem not as intelligent as you… Frankly, this is the path of an ass.

Instead, if you’re trying to better yourself,

Try to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.

Intelligence is usually the lack of stupidity, not the addition of more intelligence to cover up the stupidity that remains.

And plus, very intelligent people seem to rub us all the wrong way don’t they?

Falsely yours,
Charles Thomas Munger