With this statement I began my teaching career, as a new PhD student at the University of Tennessee. I'm not exactly sure to what degree, and in what sense I meant that. There are a couple of ways to interpret the claim. But we also call people clever who can be sincerely helpful, who serve others by helping them to understand and clarify their ideas, beliefs, attitudes and actions, and by helping them get their worthy projects off the ground or out of the clouds.
Hopeful philosophers persist in trying to help, despite the dangers.
I would like to think that I am one of these honest, hopeful types.