~Pretence.~--As a general rule, people who flagrantly pretend to anything
are the reverse of that which they pretend to. A man who sets up for a
saint is sure to be a sinner, and a man who boasts that he is a sinner
is sure to have some feeble, maudlin, sniveling bit of saintship about
him which is enough to make him a humbug.--_Bulwer-Lytton._
~Pretension.~--Pretences go a great way with men that take fair words and
magisterial looks for current payment.--_L'Estrange._
~Pride.~--I have been more and more convinced, the more I think of it,
that in general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes. All the
other passions do occasional good; but whenever pride puts in _its_
word, everything goes wrong; and what it might really be desirable to
do, quietly and innocently, it is mortally dangerous to do
proudly.--_Ruskin._
Pride's chickens have bonny feathers, but they are an expensive brood to
rear--they eat up everything, and are always lean when brought to
market.--_Alexander Smith._