"<p>Voluntary vows to ourselves - "from tomorrow I will not do this or that, I will live this way or that, I will do this or that" - should perhaps be considered even more carefully than our word to people. For the word given to men may be withdrawn if we find that the world changes around our word, that human things are differently situated around the idea once confessed as truth and professed in a vow. The truth changes too. But the word given to ourselves means that we have made a contract with our character which does not change, and therefore we cannot change the contract we have made with it. If the world despises us because we have not been able to keep our given word for some conscientious reason, this despising can be survived, because the world is not a moral contracting party either. However, if we deceive our character, we may still have a way to survive, but our inner conduct will be insecure, guilty, and fluctuating.</p>"