Men have an endless supply of excuses, justifications and pseudo-reasonings to hide their true motives for doing what they do. They’ve adapted so well to this type of mentality that the majority of them do not even realize the difference anymore. So important is the outer appearance of a man’s reputation that the plain facts are often either too dull or too inconvenient to be admitted to the public eye. The habit is so pervasive in cultured society that children learn quite soon in their conditioning to outer life that it is best to protect their image at the expense of their character. The problem here is that the heart is an awfully sensitive piece of equipment. It is either healthy from the sincere acts of good character or it becomes increasingly diseased along a slippery slope of indulgence to the vice of vanity. This is a genuine fork in the road that a man must sooner or later travel. Either he becomes uncompromising in the face of this subtle form of ‘lying to himself’ or he will slowly dry and wilt inside, until one day the rotting stench of self-deceit relegates his emotionality to that of a wooden puppet. Goodness is the water and nutrient that nourishes the heart, and the heart is the only part of the human condition that actually exists in reality. Truth and goodness go hand-in-hand — when one falters, or is sacrificed, the other inevitably suffers.