So, if you see a man, frightfully obese, stuffing his mouth with every kind of injudicious food and rendering his condition even worse, you need not say:I am superior to that man. But you can certainly say, if it is true: I am not, like him, a glutton.

And if you see women sitting around a table, playing some mindless card game, giggling and chattering about nothing of significance, killing half a day in essentially pointless activity, you need not say: I am better than these. But you certainly can say, in case it is true: I am not, like them, silly and unthinking.

And if you see a pompous man, puffing himself up, talking much and hearing nothing, calling attention to his power and position, insensitive to those around him, then you need not say to anyone: I am a better person than he. But you can say, in case it is true: I am not, like him, a pompous bore.

Conversely, if you see someone doing something very well, displaying creative gifts that have been cultivated to a high degree of excellence – a musician, for example, or a writer, or the pursuer of things more plebeian such as horticulture or skilled parenting, or whatever may rest upon creative powers that have not been allowed to atrophy – then admit, with some sense of shame, that you are not as worthy as a person as she. And do something about it. That ought, by nature, to be your primary business in life.

– Richard Taylor