Being good is highly underrated.
I have often noticed that people who proclaim their brilliance often come a cropper. Been there, done that. Often times the best thing in the world is to face an adversary who underestimates you and overestimates himself.
In matters of being good, the main thing is not to take pride in being good.
It is by pride that Lucifer fell, and I have always feared that I am very susceptible to such pride. A sense of humor about vanity helps.
“Your patient has become humble; have you drawn his attention to the fact? All virtues are less formidable to us once the man is aware that he has them, but this is specially true of humility. Catch him at the moment when he is really poor in spirit and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, ‘By jove! I’m being humble!’, and almost immediately pride—pride at his own humility—will appear. If he awakes to the danger and tries to smother this new form of pride, make him proud of his attempt—and so on, through as many stages a you please. But don’t try this too long, for fear you may awake his sense of humour and proportion, in which case he will merely laugh at you and go to bed.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
“in which case he will merely laugh at you and go to bed“
-oh how that proud spirit hates to be laughed at and how that evil spirit loses its grip… when We stay in His Grace (and Humor).