Unsourced

• When all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without loss; his accusations of himself are always believed, his praises never.
  • Michel de Montaigne

• Be your character what it will, it will be known; and nobody will take it upon your word.
  • Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

• We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not to talk of ourselves at all.
  • François de La Rochefoucauld

• It is never permissible to say, I say.
  • Madame Necker

• The more you speak of yourself, the more you are likely to lie.
  • Zimmermann

• What hypocrites we seem to be whenever we talk of ourselves! Our words sound so humble, while our hearts are so proud.
  • Hare

• The more anyone speaks of himself, the less he likes to hear another talked of.
  • Johann Kaspar Lavater

• Do you wish men to speak well of you? Then never speak well of yourself.
  • Blaise Pascal

• He who thinks he can find in himself the means of doing without others is much mistaken; but he who thinks that others cannot do without him is still more mistaken.
  • François de La Rochefoucauld

• Egotism is the anaesthetic that dulls the pains of stupidity.
  • Frank Leahy