And he never perceived that his whole life was a steady retrogression of all his faculties, of his hopes, his joys--a species of gradual renunciation--and that the circle was slowly but inexorably narrowing round him.
Among other fundamental maxims his father had given him the following: You must _make_ your own life as you would any other work of art.

The life of a man of intellect should be of his own designing.

Herein lies the only true superiority.
Again: Never, let it cost what it may, lose the mastery over yourself even in the most intoxicating rapture of the senses.

_Habere non haberi_ is the rule from which the man of intellect should never swerve.
And again--Regret is the idle pastime of an unoccupied mind.

The best method, therefore, to avoid regret is to keep the mind constantly occupied with new fancies, fresh sensations.
Unfortunately, however, these _voluntary_ axioms, which from their ambiguity might just as easily be interpreted as lofty moral rules, fell upon an _involuntary_ nature; that is to say, one in which the will power was extremely feeble.
Another seed sown by the paternal hand had borne evil fruit in Andrea's spirit--the seed of sophistry.