If we really want something done, it is best to do it ourselves.
In critical moments even the very powerful have need of the weakest.
If you are a friend, why do you bite me so hard? If an enemy, why do you fawn on me?
It is easier to become entangled with an enemy than to disentangle oneself afterwards.
He that always gives way to others will end in having no principles of his own.
Others may try to feed our ego, but it is up to us to constrain it.