Basing the recompense of virtuous deeds on another's approbation is to accept too uncertain and confused a foundation - especially since in a corrupt and ignorant period like our own to be in good esteem with the masses is an insult: whom would you trust to recognize what was worthy of praise! May God save me from being a decent man according to the self-descriptions which I daily see everyone give to the honour themselves: 'What used to be vices have become morality ' (Seneca, Epist. Moral.)
Michel de Montaigne - Essays, On repenting III,2
