If the perception of a man of resolution causes him to understand at
once the emptiness of criticisms based on envy or spleen, the timid man,
always ready to seize upon anything that can be possibly construed into
an appearance of ridicule directed against himself, will give up a
project that he hears criticized without stopping to weigh the value of
the arguments advanced.

Far from arguing the question out, or attempting a rebuttal, he never
even dreams of it. The very thought of a contest, however courteously it
may be conducted, frightening him to such an extent that he loses all
his ideas.

The unfortunate shrinking which characterizes him makes him an easy prey
for people of exaggerated enthusiasms as well as to quick
disillusionment.

A token of apparent sympathy touches him so profoundly that he does not
wait to estimate its value and to decide whether it be sincere or not.

He passes in a moment from careless gaiety to the blackest despair if he
imagines that he has observed even the appearance of an unsympathetic
gesture.

He does not need to be sure, to be miserable. It is enough for him if
the circumstances that he thought favorable become seemingly hostile and
antagonistic.

How utterly different is the attitude of the man who is endowed with
poise!