We swim, day by day, on a river of delusions, and are effectually amused with houses and towns in the air, of which the men about us are dupes. But life is a sincerity.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
The judgments our enemies make about us come nearer to the truth than those we make about ourselves.
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)