The evil of competition, as he saw it, which destroys man’s inborn communal sense and encourages all his most evil traits, including his desire to ex… - Paul Johnson

It was part of Rousseau's vanity that he believed himself incapable of base emotions. 'I feel too superior to hate.' 'I love myself too much to hate anybody.' 'Never have I known the hateful passions, never did jealousy, wickedness, vengeance enter my heart … anger occasionally but I am never crafty and never bear a grudge.' In fact he frequently bore grudges and was crafty in pursuing them.

the emperor’s two chief ministers were detected in a plan to replace Bonaparte by Murat, the emperor subjected Talleyrand to a lengthy and public dressing down in front of an astonished court. His parade-ground language was shocking, as in his tirade to Whitworth — he called Talleyrand “merde en bas-de-soie” (a shit in silk stockings) — and from that day to this, no one knows whether Bonaparte’s loss of temper was deliberate or not.

inside the angry man a fearful one cowered.