Marcus Aurelius: “But I will look to this, that I be not discovered doing or saying anything deserving of contempt.”

Besides this, he honored those who were true philosophers, and he did not reproach those who pretended to be philosophers, nor yet was he easily led by them.

But to be strong enough both to bear the one and to be sober in the other is the mark of a man who has a perfect and invincible soul, such as he showed in the illness of Maximus.

I observed, too, that no man could ever think that he was despised by Maximus, or ever venture to think himself a better man.

A man then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.