Philip

“If you overesteem great men,
people become powerless.
If you overvalue possessions,
people begin to steal”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Many in life esteem themselves great men
who then will wallow here like pigs in mud,
leaving behind them their repulsive fame.”
― Dante Alighieri, Inferno

“And, indeed, our intellectual as well as our ethical education is corrupt. It is permeated by the admiration of brilliance, of the way things are said, which takes the place of a critical appreciation of the things that are said (and the things that are done). It is permeated by this romantic idea of the splendour of the State of History on which we are actors. We are educated to act with an eye to the gallery.”
― Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies Vol. II

“People will try to understand me and to frame me in their words. They will seek truth. But the truth always carries the ambiguity of the words used to express it”
― Frank Herbert, God Emperor of Dune