It conquers, for those who possess it, the greater part of their adversaries, who lay down their arms without dreaming of offering battle.
Distinction impresses every one, both those who are deprived of it and those who are possest of it.
It is the most direct means of influencing others in the direction one wishes them to take.
It is hardly necessary for us to restate here that there must be no harmful influence in all this, no abuse of power.
Distinction is only efficacious and only possesses its proper force when it is the outcome of the qualities we have been endeavoring to inculcate in this book.
False distinction, that which is based upon effrontery, is like those mirages of the desert whose appearance troubles the traveler.
At first he rejoices at seeing before him a countryside that seems like his hoped-for goal, but as he presses forward the picture fades away little by little and he perceives that he has been the victim of an empty dream. This is invariably what happens when what appears to be distinction is founded merely upon bravado and bluff.
The credulous, who are at first deceived by the illusion, very soon arrive at the point where they perceive their error, and, with the dissipation of the mirage, comes the contempt of the person who has thus made them take him seriously. They do not find it an easy matter to forgive him for having made dupes of them and their anger increases with the hurt to their wounded pride.
Those people, on the other hand, who possess that distinction that comes from the qualities inherent in poise, are sure of being able to preserve it untarnished, because their influence will never be enfeebled by disappointments they may cause in others.
If they are ever conquered for a moment, it is never because of weakness or lack of character.