his duties, while watching other people fighting to maintain the social
equilibrium and seeking to achieve the position to which their talents
and their attainments render them worthy to aspire.

That which is too easily honored with the title of modesty is generally
nothing more than a screen behind which conscious ineptitude conceals
itself.

It is a very easy thing to strike a disdainful attitude and to exclaim:
"I didn't care to compete!"

Do not forget that a defeat after a sanguinary combat is infinitely more
honorable than a retreat in which not a blow is struck.

Moreover, the combats of the mind temper the soul, just as those of the
body fortify the flesh, by making both fit for the victory that is to
be.

It is then against the enemies of poise that we must go forth to war.

Cowardice must be hunted down, wherever we encounter it, because its
victims are thrown into the struggle of life burdened with an undeniable
inferiority.

Even if they are worth while no one will be found to observe it, since
their lack of poise always turns them back upon themselves, and very few
people have the wit to discover what is so sedulously concealed.

Deception is the necessary corollary of this, and one that very soon
becomes changed into spite. The disappointment of being misunderstood