I may appear despicable and a little withered, yet by reason of my knowledge and wisdom I outsoar most men who dot this world. Emperors and kings are astonished at my pleasing discourse and sweetness of the tongue.
The science, the art, the jurisprudence, the chief political and social theories, of the modern world have grown out of Greece and Rome—not by favour of, but in the teeth of, the fundamental teachings of early Christianity, to which science, art, and any serious occupation with the things of this world were alike despicable.
Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.
