He will tell himself that if the best cannot be done, he must content himself with the next best.

He must shake hands with the imperfect, as the best way of lifting himself up from a bad way toward a better.

In obedience to his very conscience he will temporize, and, finding no other way of achieving good, will do even evil that good may come of it.

"Rem si possis recte; si non, quocunque modo rem." In judging of such a character as this, a hard and fast line will certainly lead us astray.
In judging of Cicero, such a hard and fast line has too generally been used.

He was a man singularly sensitive to all influences.