"I'm scared," she said, when I came into the sitting room.
I kissed her once.
She said, "Again."
So I really kissed her.
She stepped away, afterwhile. "I'm not so scared now."
"It's good for you to be."
"Why is it?"
"Because you so seldom knew you were. You spent your time trying to frighten other people—instead of knowing."
"Not frighten. Impress, maybe—"
"Another word for the same dirty deed: convince them of your inherent and cultivated superiority. Whenever people achieve that—they also convince others of their relative inferiority. And when that conviction comes from a false estimate of the situation—believe me, it's upsetting. Frightening is the realer word."