Reverence...........................

13.  Nothing is more melancholy that to compass the whole creation, 'probing into the deeps of earth', as the poet says, and peering curiously into the secrets of others' souls, without once understanding that to hold fast to the divine spirit within, and serve it loyally, is all that is needful.  Such service involves keeping it pure from passion, and from aimlessness, and from discontent with the works of gods or men;  for the former of these works deserves our reverence, for their excellence;  the latter our goodwill, for fraternity's sake, and at times perhaps our pity too, because of men's ignorance of good and evil - and infirmity as crippling as the inability to distinguish black from white.

-Marcus Aurelius,   Meditations,  Book Two