The Lincoln Highway

by Amor Towles

To hold another man in disdain, his father would say, presumed that you knew so much about his lot, so much about his intentions, about his actions both public and private that you could rank his character against your own without fear of misjudgment.

If we are asked to apply ourselves to that which is before us, she would say, we are less likely to fret over that which is not.