---
title: "On nobility"
description: "Nobody will ever know."
author: "Ghaith Ayadi"
site: "Verbatim"
collection: "Hokum"
url: "https://verbatim.ayadighaith.com/hokum/on-nobility"
date: 2024-04-02
updated: 2026-09-16
---
# On nobility

Nobody will ever know.

Seems to me that this is the greatest wisdom

Seems to me that the essence of nobility has something to do with the things we do that nobody will ever know.

The good things we do are destined to not be known. I might argue that the things that can be known are not great at all.

When the fireman saves a child from a burning house. We cheer and we hold him up as a brave man and a hero. I think we should continue to do that.

But when someone does something to prevent a house from being burnt, then we do nothing. There are no rewards for that. We don’t know that it exists. We don’t know if it exists. And yet it was more useful than saving the child because it necessarily includes saving the child.

The company chairman who saves a company from bankruptcy is hailed as a genius. Likewise when he makes a major restructuring, wins a huge battle or navigates his ship trough the stormy waters. And yet the captain who sees the storms from afar and diverts his ship well in advance without telling anyone is unseen and unappreciated.

The husband who works tirelessly to provide for his family is appreciated and seen as a man of character. And he who gets the same results by making carful decisions and taking every care to never get close to hardship goes unnoticed.

It seems to me that the choice of the wise man is to either to subscribe to the silent toils of nobility or the loud roar and the drama of what human beings like to celebrate.