The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that will show you what the real smallness of your greatness is.
It is from a weakness and smallness of mind that men are opinionated and we are very loath to believe what we are not able to comprehend.
Smallness in a great man seems smaller by its disproportion with all the rest.
For so long as the Jew has even one ally he will be convinced - in his smallness of mind - that his salvation came from that ally. It is only when he is alone - against all of his own efforts and frantic attempts - that he will through no choice be compelled to turn to G-d.
My dad was working abroad in Iraq and he was a doctor. We used to go and visit him in Baghdad off and on. For the first ten years of my life we used to go backwards and forwards to Baghdad so that was quite amazing. I spent a lot of time traveling around the Middle East.