Choose the company of your superiors whenever you can have it. [ Lord Chesterfield ]

To be humble to our superiors is duty; to our equals, courtesy; to our inferiors, generosity. [ Owen Feltham ]

If thou hast no inferiors, have patience awhile, and thou shalt have no superiors. The grave requires no marshal. [ Quarles ]

A man should live with his superiors as he does with his fire, - not too near, lest he burn: nor too far off, lest he freeze. [ Diogenes ]

The truly proud man knows neither superiors nor inferiors. The first he does not admit of: the last he does not concern himself about. [ Hazlitt ]

Be very circumspect in the choice of thy company. In the society of thine equals thou shalt enjoy more pleasure; in the society of thy superiors thou shalt find more profit. To be the best in the company is the way to grow worse; the best means to grow better is to be the worst there. [ Quarles ]

The Greeks adored their gods by the simple compliment of kissing their hands; and the Romans were treated as atheists if they would not perform the same act when they entered a temple. This custom, however, as a religious ceremony declined with paganism, but was continued as a salutation by inferiors to their superiors, or as a token of esteem among friends. [ Disraeli ]