Read the following passage and answer the question that follows. Your answer should be based on the passage only.

A capable administrator, like anyone else who wishes to improve, learns more from critics than from admirers. Admirers will often cheer him toward mistakes he cannot see, while critics, however unwelcome, point to the very risks he must guard against. So a wise administrator does not wish away every critic, however much they trouble him, for they alone keep him honest and attentive. The stability of any government depends on power being kept in reasonable balance, so that no single authority is able to act arbitrarily and no critic is able to act with purely destructive intent.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the critical message conveyed by the author of the passage?