And if he were really to do good he would have needed in addition to his principles, a heart capable of violating them - a heart which knows only of particular not of general cases and which achieves greatness in little actions.

What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds, and until we know what has been or will be the peculiar combination of outward with inward facts, which constitutes a man’s critical actions, it will be better not to think ourselves wise about his character. There is a terrible coercion in our deeds, which may first turn the honest man into a deceiver and then reconcile him to the change, for this reason — that the second wrong presents itself to him in the guise of the only practicable right. The action which before commission has been seen with that blended common sense and fresh untarnished feeling which is the healthy eye of the soul, is looked at afterwards with the lens of apologetic ingenuity, through which all things that men call beautiful and ugly are seen to be made up of textures very much alike. Europe adjusts itself to a fait accompli, and so does an individual character — until the placid adjustment is disturbed by a convulsive retribution.

He was very purposeful and determined. He didn’t go into anything without having the desired outcome.

For his heart was in his work, and the heart giveth grace unto every art.

6384. He that would please all, and himself too,
Undertakes what none could ever do.

The warrior uses the power of the brain to be deliberate and the power of the heart to be instinctive.

Man, he suspected, had a particular genius for complicating things, for creating social hurdles that one must leap or be thought lacking.

Stringer is very calculating and he has to be for so many reasons. He'll calculates the next steps, shipments, inventory, pays workers..all that. But the wicked part is that he can plan murders because that's a part of his business. I'll tell you, if I, Idris, had to contract for murders as part of my job, I couldn't do it because I have a heart. I have no stomach for ordering other people's deaths. Stringer just gets in there, orders the deed and bam..that's it..it's done and he doesn't think twice about it. There's no way I could be that cold. I'm also a more lively kid out there, doing stuff and I can't just do one thing forever. Stringer is committed to his job and business so much so he doesn't have much of a personal life so he's more one dimensional. As for me I have a child, a life, thirst for travel, you know I'm curious..whereas Stringer is more interested in being the best business person and his interests don't go further than that.

The heart decides, the head rationalizes.

Maybe anything's right, he mumbled. Yes, if the world as men had made it was right, then anything else was right, any act a man took to satisfy himself, murder, theft, torture.He straightened with a start. What was happening to him? ... He was going to do something, but what? Yes, he was afraid of himself, afraid of doing some nameless thing.

But the whole circumstances of time, place, and incident, combined at once to awaken his imagination, and to call upon him for a manly and decisive tone of conduct, leaving to fate to dispose of the issue.

For his heart was in his work, and the heart
Giveth grace unto every Art.

Sometimes doing the gods’ bidding required a hardened heart.