God’s most lordly gift to man is decency of mind.

Of all the qualities a person might be given, plain decency is ranked highest here, above brilliance and above force. That ranking is unfashionable, because decency is undramatic and almost impossible to display. It shows up mostly in what someone declines to do: the advantage not taken, the cruelty available and left alone.

Whether you regard it as a gift or as something built, it behaves the same way, which is by practice. Look back over the week for a moment when you had the upper hand over somebody and did not use it. That, rather than anything you achieved, is the part of you other people are quietly counting on.