Oho! My apologies! Consider it a bad habit, that. I don't seem terribly able to gauge how best to address others, or so I've oft been scolded. Never intentional on my part, I quite assure you. Never my intention to offend anyone, though that seems too often to be the case! Maybe this old man should be considering a fresh set of untainted knowledge after all, all the better to make myself a bit more amenable, eh? Hah, but enough of that, I apologise, take no offense and pay it no mind.

But oh, I have to grant that you're not incorrect in your estimation. Ambition just isn't a great priority of mine. I prefer the pursuit of knowledge for its own merit, simply for the knowing, though of course being in a position to pass that knowledge along to future generations is nothing to be shunned. I do consider myself a learned man, yes, and sadly beginning to become advanced in his years. I think I could do a greater credit chronicling the knowledge and memories I've previous acquired than I ever could in starting again at this plump old age! I'll have to leave such daring feats of ingenuity to you bold youngsters, I think.

Not a decision made gladly, but I must stand by my original thoughts. If you must deem me coward for them then I accept the mantle with some small pride.

And am I to take it, then, that you would take the opposite choice?