SECTION 37. You ought never to take any man as a model for what you
T. Bailey (Thomas Bailey) Saunders translation
should do or leave undone; because position and circumstances are in no two cases alike, and difference of character gives a peculiar, individual tone to what a man does. Hence duo cum faciunt idem, non est idem—two persons may do the same thing with a different result. A man should act in accordance with his own character, as soon as he has carefully deliberated on what he is about to do.
The outcome of this is that originality cannot be dispensed with in practical matters: otherwise, what a man does will not accord with what he is.