Conduct.

Sully, Life Study of the Marquis de Lafayette, 1825

 

I read, I study, I examine, I listen, I reflect, and out of all of this I try to form an idea into which I put as much common sense as I can. I shall not speak much for fear of saying foolish things; I will risk still less for fear of doing them, for I am not disposed to abuse the confidence which they have deigned to show me. Such is the conduct which until now I have followed and will follow.

Marquis de Lafayette, from a letter to his father-in-law, December 4, 1776