For nothing can be intelligently accomplished unless first, with full forethought, you reason and deliberate how you ought to direct your own future, what mode of life you should choose, what kind of repute you should set your heart upon, and which kind of honors you should be contented with—those freely granted by your fellow-citizens or those wrung from them against their will; and when these principles have been determined, then and only then should your daily actions be considered, in order that they may be in conformity with the original plan.

If in this way you seriously search and study, you will take mental aim, as at a mark, at what is expedient for you, and will be the more likely to hit it. And if you have no such plan, but attempt to act in casual fashion, inevitably you will go astray in your purposes and fail in many undertakings.