Your letter has made me know the elating pleasures of the soul; the first that I have known outside of my family affections.
"Modeste Mignon"
Honore de Balzac
However, for the matter of vanity, all I know of myself is the fact that praise, if consciously undeserved, only depresses me instead of elating; that a noted characteristic of mine through life has been to hide away in the rear rather than rush to the front, unless, indeed, forced forward by duty, when I can be bold enough, if need be; and that one defect in me all know to be a dislike to any assumption of dignity-surely a feeling the opposite to self-conceit; whilst, if I am not true, simple, and sincere, I am worse than I hope I am, and all my friends are deceived in their kind judgment of me.
"My Life as an Author"
Martin Farquhar Tupper
His last days were evidently passed in a struggle for existence, which was not so bitter to him as it might have been to another man, for he was sustained by ever-elating "great expectations."
"Captain John Smith"
Charles Dudley Warner Last Updated: February 22, 2009