In all his dealings with people, he was never cruel, rude, or pushy. He never acted greedy or rushed. He never did anything so frantically that you could say he was sweating over it. Instead, he did everything clearly and calmly, without stress, in proper order, with good sense and grace. You could say about him what they said about Socrates: he knew how to do without things and how to enjoy them. Most people become weak when they lack something, and wild when they have it. But staying firm and steady, keeping true balance whether you have little or much — that belongs to someone with a perfect, unshakeable soul. He showed this strength when Maximus was sick.
In all his conversation, far from all inhumanity, all boldness, and incivility, all greediness and impetuosity; never doing anything with such earnestness, and intention, that a man could say of him, that he did sweat about it: but contrariwise, all things distinctly, as at leisure; without trouble; orderly, soundly, and agreeably. A man might have applied that to him, which is recorded of Socrates, that he knew how to want, and to enjoy those things, in the want whereof, most men show themselves weak; and in the fruition, intemperate: but to hold out firm and constant, and to keep within the compass of true moderation and sobriety in either estate, is proper to a man, who hath a perfect and invincible soul; such as he showed himself in the sickness of Maximus.