The fact is that fewer people are endowed with virtue than wish to be thought to be so.
 Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Friendship (44 BC). copy citation

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Author Marcus Tullius Cicero
Source On Friendship
Topic virtue thought
Date 44 BC
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by E. S. Shuckburgh
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2808/2808-h/2808-h.htm

Context

“I grant you that Virtue naturally loves herself; for she knows herself and perceives how worthy of love she is. But I am not now speaking of absolute virtue, but of the belief men have that they possess virtue. The fact is that fewer people are endowed with virtue than wish to be thought to be so. It is such people that take delight in flattery. When they are addressed in language expressly adapted to flatter their vanity, they look upon such empty persiflage as a testimony to the truth of their own praises.” source