IMPECCABLE

But fault is too narrow a reading. Impeccable, in the context of the man who takes himself seriously, means something closer to this: without the residue of inattention. Every element present because it should be. Every element correct because the man correcting it could not have made peace with it otherwise. Not because anyone was watching. Because he was watching. He has internalized a standard so completely that deviation from it creates a friction he finds intolerable. This is not perfectionism. Perfectionism is neurotic — a war against reality. Impeccability is quieter than that. It is the daily practice of inhabiting your own standard without apology or announcement. The detail that no one notices is not wasted. It is exactly the point. The man who is impeccable in the small things — the thread, the collar, the press of a pocket square — is the man whose large things can be trusted. What he is saying, through every deliberate choice, is that nothing in his life will be given less than his full attention.