It is possible to have a strong self-love without any self-satisfaction, rather with a self-discontent which is the more intense because ones own little core of egoistic sensibility is a supreme care. – George Eliot
To be candid, in Middlemarch phraseology, meant, to use an early opportunity of letting your friends know that you did not take a cheerful view of their capacity, their conduct, or their position; and a robust candor never waited to be asked for its opinion. – George Eliot