The objective quality of a man is based on his tolerance towards elevating degrees of stress. It depends on his capacity to withstand an ounce, a pound, or a ton of relatively escalating episodes of stressful factors and situations, all of which encroach on his peace of mind. One man will cower in the face of a scant amount while another will only retreat once a comparatively grander dose falls onto his plate. Upon such a scale of tolerance to emotionally upsetting elements in a man’s life does a pyramid of excellence come into being. A criticism towards this is the assumption that emotional development, maturity, and resilience be equated with coldheartedness and the like. While two men, one emotionally fertile and the other stunted, may appear to react to an impacting event in a similar way, the outwardly stoic disposition is not the rubric by which the phenomenon should be measured. One man feels everything and, by way of a richness of emotionality brought about by years of personal development, transcends his base instincts in favour of intelligent behaviour intended to bring about expedient and positive results. The other has his emotional function dimmed and shutdown in a state of atrophy, which merely appears outwardly stoic while no inner friction and transformation of emotion is actually in effect.