-俺様
If a fellow walks through existence with the career of hairdresser his supreme ideal in life, that individual is a victor, a great victor, from the moment he holds in his hands a tangled mane and a pair of scissors to shear it with, even though you might find him walking across the Chiado looking crestfallen and in ragtag boots. If, on the other hand, a young man of twenty, the age one has to choose a career, decides to become a millionaire, a sublime poet, an undefeated general, a tamer of men (or women, depending on the circumstance) and after the most strenuous effort reaches only halfway toward the vaunted million, poem, or cocked hat, then he is, for all intents and purposes, someone who has been vanquished, a dead man alive, even though you might find him strutting across the Baixa shrouded in a Poole frock coat, the luster of resignation on his top hat.
-Eça de Quiróz