Credulity is the man’s weakness, but the child’s strength.

Believing readily is exactly right at the start and dangerous later. A child who took nothing on trust could learn nothing, since almost everything they need arrives on somebody’s word. The same openness in an adult, who now has money, obligations and other people depending on them, is how a person gets taken. Neither state is a flaw of character; the mistake is carrying the first setting into conditions that require the second.

Notice where you still accept things because of who said them. Keep the openness for ideas, and apply proper scepticism wherever believing costs something.