When we see that almost everything men devote their lives to attain, sparing no effort and encountering a thousand toils and dangers in the process, has, in the end, no further object than to raise themselves in the estimation of others; when we see that not only offices, titles, decorations, but also wealth, nay, even knowledge36 and art, are striven for only to obtain, as the ultimate goal of all effort, greater respect from one’s fellowmen — is not this a lamentable proof of the extent to which human folly can go? To set much too high a value on other people’s opinion is a common error
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