Sublime

If my judges are unable to discern the purity of my intentions, or to credit the statement of them,

Joe was an equity icon in my book because access was always on his mind.

“I’m not flattering you. I think you’re remarkable.”

The ego clearly prefers an economy of merit, where we can divide the world into winners and losers, to any economy of grace, where merit or worthiness loses all meaning.4

“You mean something to him,” Valentine insisted. “He’s formed an attachment to you, and I’ve never seen that before. Which is why I don’t think anyone in the world can manage him except for you.”

for, between ourselves, I flatter myself he is an original, and I am rather proud of him.'

Given the degree to which a sense of self-worth is determined extrinsically, it would be more accurate to call it a “sense of other-worth.”

Chase, McLean remarked, “is selfish, beyond any other man. And I know from the bargain he has made in being elected to the Senate, he is ready to make any bargain to promote his interest.”