I think in one of my previous lives I was a mighty king, because I like people to do what I say. [ Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts ]

They who, without any previous knowledge of us, think amiss of us, do us no harm: they attack not us, but the phantom of their own imagination. [ La Bruyere ]

Gratitude is never conferred but where there have been previous endeavours to excite it; we consider it as a debt, and our spirits wear a load till we have discharged the obligation. [ Goldsmith ]

He who expects from a great name in politics, in philosophy, in art, equal greatness in other things, is little versed in human nature. Our strength lies in our weakness. The learned in books are ignorant of the world. He who is ignorant of books is often well acquainted with other things; for life is of the same length in the learned and unlearned; the mind cannot be idle; if it is not taken up with one thing, it attends to another through choice or necessity; and the degree of previous capacity in one class or another is a mere lottery. [ Hazlitt ]