The Stranger: "The Dude abides... I don't know about you, but I take comfort in that; it's good knowin' he's out there, The Duuuude, takin' her easy for all us sinners..." The Big Lebowski

"A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires."

Marcus Aurelius

I didn't say I knew him...

"The sun seems to pour itself down, and pours itself in every direction, but it is not emptied. For this is an extension, and its rays are so named because of their extension. You can observe this if you watch sunlight shining through some narrow crack in a dark room. It extends itself in a straight line until it encounters some solid body which stops its extension. There the light rests, and it does not move or fall off.

This is how the pouring and diffusion of the mind must be, for it is not a pouring out, but rather an extension of itself; and it should not make a violent or angry impact upon whatever stands in its way; nor should it simply fall away, but rather it should stand firm and illuminate whatever receives it. Whatever does not accept it and help it on its way only deprives itself of the light."

The Essential Marcus Aurelius, (2008) translated & introduced by Needleman & Piazza