People who smile when you prove them wrong

There’s this snippet I like in a book I read last year:

Arrogant people who love being contradicted, show-offs who smile when you prove them wrong, dogmatists ready to change their mind in a heartbeat: I’ve encountered this singular attitude only among very good mathematicians.

The book is Mathematica: A Secret World of Intuition and Curiosity by David Bessis, which I picked because it seemed to contain material about Alexander Grothendieck.

It’s one of those books that try to make math inviting to people who’ve been scared off of it. The author has good intentions and some interesting ideas, but I don’t think the book succeeds.

Anyway, about that quote. The author sounds here (and elsewhere in the book) a bit provincial; he should get out more.
Great observation, nonetheless.