I mortally hate to seem a flatterer, and so I naturally drop into a dry, plain, blunt way of speaking … I honour most those to whom I show least honour … I offer myself meagrely and proudly to those to whom I belong. And I tender myself least to those to whom I have given myself most; it seems to me that they should read my feelings in my heart, and see that what my words express does an injustice to my thought.
