“Great minds are to make others great. Their superiority is to be used not to break the multitude to intellectual vassalage, not to establish over them a spiritual tyranny, but to rouse them from lethargy, and to aid them to judge for themselves. The light and life which spring up in one soul are to be spread far and wide. Of all treasons against humanity, there is no one worse than his who employs great intellectual force to keep down the intellect of his brother.”
W. E. Channing
“The superior man examines his heart, that there may be nothing wrong there, and that he may have no cause for dissatisfaction with himself.
That wherein the superior man cannot be equaled is simply this — his work, which other men cannot see.”
“It is the way of the superior man to prefer the concealment of his virtue, while it daily becomes more illustrious.
And it is the way of the mean man to seek notoriety, while he daily goes more and more TO RUIN.”
— Confucius (551 B.C. – 479 B.C.)