“He also knew that rivals are best unmanned by being ignored.”
John Irving book A Prayer for Owen Meany
Source: A Prayer for Owen Meany
H 10
Variant translation: He who is in love with himself has at least this advantage — he won't encounter many rivals.
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook H (1784-1788)
“He also knew that rivals are best unmanned by being ignored.”
John Irving book A Prayer for Owen Meany
Source: A Prayer for Owen Meany
Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903) German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist and writer
The History Of Rome, Volume 2. Chapter 6. Translated by W.P.Dickson
The History of Rome - Volume 2
André Maurois (1885–1967) French writer
Les silences du colonel Bramble (The Silence of Colonel Bramble)
“He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer
Quoted in "Anecdotes of the Revd. Percival Stockdale" (1809) in Johnsonian Miscellanies (1897), vol. II, p. 333, edited by George Birkbeck Hill; also quoted in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, in the Avenged Sevenfold song "Bat Country", and in Kingdom S02E04.
“The fool has one great advantage over a man of sense — he is always satisfied with himself.”
Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
“He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.”
Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books
Mary Astell (1666–1731) English feminist writer
Reflection upon Marriage, as quoted in Astell: Political Writings, p. 44.
Henry Fielding (1707–1754) English novelist and dramatist
Jonathan Wild (1743, rev. 1754), Book III, ch. 7
John Rawls book A Theory of Justice
Source: A Theory of Justice (1971; 1975; 1999), Chapter II, Section 16, pg. 95