Mr Jowett was always intent on improving his own character for the sake of his undergraduates. This is very rare in middle aged men and still more so in elderly and old men... [Jowett possessed] more character than any body I ever knew... He mastered life, life did not master him: that was what the spirit of life was in him. He was master even when most depressed.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Mr Jowett was always intent on improving his own character for the sake of his undergraduates. This is very rare in middle aged men and still more so in elderly and old men... [Jowett possessed] more character than any body I ever knew... He mastered life, life did not master him: that was what the spirit of life was in him. He was master even when most depressed." in the context of "Florence Nightingale, quoted in Dear Miss Nightingale: A Selection of Benjamin Jowett's Letters to Florence Nightingale 1860–1893, eds. Vincent Quinn and John Prest (1987), pp. xxxiv-xxxv" to mean that wisdom is timeless.