As part of the ceremony, she asked certain knights and other gentles to speak on some of the chivalric virtues at her vigil, to be held the evening prior. As I have had the pleasure of knowing Mistress Siobhan for many years, I readily agreed. I would say that to be noble is to strive to be better than what is expected, to do what is commonly regarded as right , regardless of personal expense. Many have said that that pride, that opposite resident to humility, is at fault for our failure as human beings to act nobly. It is said that pride brings men low.
Pride can beget excellence, quality, prowess.
The difficulty with pride is that there is no obvious barrier between constructive pride yielding excellence, and destructive vainglory yielding boastfulness. Vainglory, the older sibling to pride, is the most puissant enemy a knight or noble will ever face. Vainglory is a plight that blinds, quietly seducing men to cover their own eyes with blinders of woven rationalization. And though it is false, this comfortable fantasy finds ready acceptance because it is what we has human beings want to hear that we are right. Because we are human, most of us struggle against the specter of vainglory, of self-deception, for our entire lives.