thoughts about truth and choices

There are some phrases I came across recently, which keep running through my mind:

"Truth is a daughter of time."
I found this one in an article about corruption in Austria, especially linked to the famous politician Jörg Haider, whom many used to venerate in a saint-like fashion. Now, years after his suicide, people slowly start to look at irregularities they used to brush over, and demystification and criticism slowly start to shape a more realistic image of what has happened. The quoted sentence stresses the fact that often, after the end of an aera, it takes a lot (maybe a generation even) of time for people to let go of sentimental and glorifying pictures, and to face reality.
Why do I think this phrase is remarkable? I find it fascinating, cause it brings a fact to the point about relationships on many levels (personal, couple, family, society): that it takes time, patience and courage, to find truth under the delusions one has build up about something or someone.

"Sometimes it is harder to be kind than clever."
This phrase is from a TED-Talk by Jeff Bezos, the founder of amazon, given at a Princeton graduation ceremony. He uses it as basis to elaborate his statement that decisions in life matter more than the talents one has been given: Cleverness is something one has or not, it is given, so one cannot take credit for it. Kindness, on the other hand, is a decision put into practice, so it tells about the character of a person and shapes their personality.
The reason this statement keeps stunning me? It is the fact that often I am surrounded by very smart people, and could observe that some of them won't miss a chance to stress their superiority over others on the grounds of general cleverness. As far as I'm aware, they do so not neccessarily because they are arrogant snobs, but because they are so used to competing on that level (in the end, school teaches us so..) that they might not even notice how inappropriate this is on certain occasions (especially, if this superiority is already clearly established). I have the feeling that quite some marvellous, admirable, genius people could benefit a lot from accepting the challenge of practising kindness in their conduct.