A gnat having challenged a bull to a trial of strength, all the people came to see the combat. Then said the gnat: "'tis enough that you have come to meet me in combat; for though little in my own idea, I am great in your judgment," And so saying, he took himself off on light wing through the air, and duped the multitude, and eluded the threats of the bull. Now if the bull had kept in mind his strength of neck, and had contemned an ignoble foe, the vapouring of the trifler would have been all in vain. 
He loses character who puts himself on a level with the undeserving. 