It is therefore important for you to remember that it is our conscience, not our pride, that rises above our Gossips.
When you raise yourself above your pride & egos, will you then truly appreciate, True happiness, & that is when you may live openly before everyone’s eyes, & the walls protects you, yet do not hide you.
If your deeds be honourable, & everyone knows, & if your exploits be wicked, & no-one knows, however you know, & that is the main cost of gossips, that your conscience have to pay !
Greatness is not absolute
comparison increases
or lessen it.
On the Relativity of Fame
Do you ask how the news reached me, & who informed me, that you were entertaining this idea, of which you had said nothing to a single soul?
It was that most knowing of persons
Gossip.
What, you say, am I such a great personage that I can stir up gossip?
Now there is no reason why you should measure yourself according to this part of the world; have regard only to the place where you are dwelling; Any point which rises above adjacent points is great, at the spot where it rises.
For greatness is not absolute
comparison increases it or lessens it.
A ship which looms large in the river seems tiny when on the ocean; A rudder which is large for one vessel, is small for another.
So you in your cities are really of importance, though you scorn yourself.
People are asking what you do, how you dine, & how you sleep, & they find out, too; hence there is all the more reason for your living circumspectly.
Do not, however, deem yourself truly happy until you find that you can live before people’s eyes, until your walls protect yet do not hide you.
Although we are apt to believe that these walls surround us, not to enable us to live more safely, but that we may sin more secretly.
I shall mention a fact by which you may weigh the worth of a person’s character: you will scarcely find anyone who can live with their door wide open.
It is our conscience, not our pride, that has put doorkeepers at our doors; we live in such a fashion that being suddenly disclosed to view is equivalent to being caught in the act.
What profits it, however, to hide ourselves away, & to avoid the eyes & ears of people?
A good conscience welcomes the crowd, however a bad conscience, even in solitude, is disturbed & troubled.
If your deeds are honourable, let everybody know them; if base, what matters it that no one knows them, as long as you yourself know them?
How wretched you are if you despise such a witness!
Always Be Confident 