Chapter XXXVII: Section 37: You ought never to take any man as a model for what you

should do or leave undone; because position and circumstances are in no two cases alike, and difference of character gives a peculiar, individual tone to what a man does. Hence _duo cum faciunt idem, non est idem_--two persons may do the same thing with a different result. A man should act in accordance with his own character, as soon as he has carefully deliberated on what he is about to do.

The outcome of this is that _originality_ cannot be dispensed with in practical matters: otherwise, what a man does will not accord with what he is.