From “The Four Cardinal Virtues“:
No man is altogether self-sufficient in matters of prudence’; without docilitas there is no perfect prudence. Docilitas, however, is of course not the ‘docility’ and the simple-minded zealousness of the ‘good pupil.’ Rather, what is meant is the kind of open-mindedness which recognizes the true variety of things and situations to be experienced and does not cage itself in any presumption of deceptive knowledge. What is meant is the ability to take advice, sprung not from any vague “modesty,” but simply from the desire for real understanding (which, however, necessarily includes genuine humility). A closed mind and know-it-allness are fundamentally forms of resistance to the truth of real things; both reveal the incapacity of the subject to practice that silence which is the absolute prerequisite to all perception of reality
Séamus Sweeney 