The Stoic philosopher Ariston of Chios was said to have believed strongly that the wise man should avoid making absolute judgments. Certitude, he felt, was neither possible nor desirable.
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The political philosopher Ibn Zafar, in his masterful treatise Consolation for the Ruler During the Hostility of his Subjects, states as follows:
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I recall reading somewhere that both Archimedes and the mathematician Leonhard Euler never liked to explain how they arrived at their discoveries. They took care to remove all the scaffolding before presenting their magnificent edifices to posterity; we saw the finished product, but not the arduous labor that was necessary to create it. This may be an exaggeration, at least in the case of Archimedes, whose lost Method was finally unearthed in Istanbul in 1906; but I think the point is sufficiently true, for enough famous names, to merit some reflection.
When we need to form our own estimates of others, we should learn to trust our own judgments, and not be swayed by the criticisms or slanders of others. Behavior is better verified by observation, rather than by the rumors and innuendos of others.
Quintus Curtius 
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