"Nothing is easier than self-deceit because what each man wishes, he also believes to be true."  – Demosthenes, Third Olynthiac

"The fly sat upon the axel-tree of the chariot wheel and said, "What a dust do I raise!"  – Aesop, Fables

"If any man thinks that he alone is wise – that in speech or in mind he has no peer – such a soul, when laid open, is always found empty."  – Sophocles, Antigone

"A time will soon come when the tragic actors will think that their masks and buskins and the long robes are . . . themselves."  – Epictetus, Discourses