Smarter than the average temple guard?

Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.... Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, "Why didn't you bring him in?"
"No one ever spoke the way this man does," the guards declared.

(At this point I always wish the Pharisees replied, "Oh, the crowd, the guards... maybe they're right and we've been wrong!" But no matter how many times I read it, these clowns always say the same thing.)

"You mean he has deceived you also?" the Pharisees retorted. "Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law--there is a curse on them."
John 7.32, 45-49

These guys are really something. They think they're smarter than the average temple guard, the average person. They think they're right and everybody else is wrong. They're not entirely without reason in thinking this -- they later manipulate Pilate into crucifying Jesus (and the crowd into asking for that) so they do have some skills -- but their arrogance, their hubris, is an error I want to avoid. And sometimes I'm even successful.

Not that I usually assume I'm wrong, but I hope I don't often think I'm the only one who sees things correctly, when everyone else has an opinion at variance with mine.

Which probably means I'm not all that smart, but that's OK if it also means I'm not as wrong as the Pharisees were in this case.