As a general rule, every one is more inclined to lend credence to the bad than the good.

Every one is inclined to magnify the bad in some measure, and although the alarms which are thus propagated like the waves of the sea subside into themselves, still, like them, without any apparent cause they rise again.

Firm in reliance on his own better convictions, the Chief must stand like a rock against which the sea breaks its fury in vain.

The role is not easy; he who is not by nature of a buoyant disposition, or trained by experience in War, and matured in judgment, may let it be his rule to do violence to his own natural conviction by inclining from the side of fear to that of hope; only by that means will he be able to preserve his balance.

This difficulty of seeing things correctly, which is one of the greatest sources of friction in War, makes things appear quite different from what was expected.