No man can possibly improve in any company for which he has not respect enough to be under some degree of restraint.—­Chesterfield.

A companion is but another self; wherefore it is an argument that a man is wicked if he keep company with the wicked.—­St. Clement.

Let them have ever so learned lectures of breeding, that which will most influence their carriage will be the company they converse with, and the fashion of those about them.—­Locke.

Conceit.—­Be not wise in your own conceits.—­Romans 12:16.

Conceit is the most contemptible and one of the most odious qualities in the world.  It is vanity driven from all other shifts, and forced to appeal to itself for admiration.—­Hazlitt.

The certain way to be cheated is to fancy one’s self more cunning than others.—­Charron.

Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty; it is not only needless, but impairs what it would improve.—­Pope.

Be very slow to believe that you are wiser than all others; it is a fatal but common error.  Where one has been saved by a true estimation of another’s weakness, thousands have been destroyed by a false appreciation of their own strength.—­Colton.

We go and fancy that everybody is thinking of us.  But he is not; he is like us—­he is thinking of himself.—­Charles Reade.

Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit?  There is more hope of a fool than of him.—­Proverbs 26:12.

A man who is proud of small things shows that small things are great to him.—­Madame de Girardin.

Self-made men are most always apt to be a little too proud of the job.—­H.W.  Shaw.

Nature has sometimes made a fool, but a coxcomb is always of a man’s own making.—­Addison.

He who gives himself airs of importance exhibits the credentials of impotence.—­Lavater.

The more any one speaks of himself, the less he likes to hear another talked of.—­Lavater.

Conduct.—­I will govern my life, and my thoughts, as if the whole world were to see the one, and to read the other; for what does it signify to make anything a secret to my neighbor, when to God (who is the searcher of our hearts) all our privacies are open?—­Seneca.

The integrity of men is to be measured by their conduct, not by their professions.—­Junius.

Have more than thou showest,
Speak less than thou knowest,
Lend less than thou owest,
Learn more than thou trowest,
Set less than thou throwest. 

          
                          —­Shakespeare.

A man, like a watch, is to be valued for his manner of going.—­William Penn.

I would, God knows, in a poor woodman’s hut
Have spent my peaceful days, and shared my crust
With her who would have cheer’d me, rather far
Than on this throne; but being what I am,
I’ll be it nobly. 

                                    —­Joanna Baillie.