[137]
In most cases, we may apply a
mild reproof, so combined, however, with earnestness, that, while severity is shown, offensive language
is avoided. Nay more, we must show clearly that
even that very harshness which goes with our reproof is designed for the good of the person reproved.
[p. 141]
The right course, moreover, even in our differences1
with our bitterest enemies, is to maintain our dignity and to repress our anger, even though we are
treated outrageously. For what is done under some
degree of excitement cannot be done with perfect
self-respect or the approval of those who witness it.
It is bad taste also to talk about oneself—especially 2 if what one says is not true—and, amid the
derision of one's hearers, to play “The Braggart
Captain.”3
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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