But a morbid consciousness that others did not give him the place which he had not demonstrably merited—a… — George Eliot

But a morbid consciousness that others did not give him the place which he had not demonstrably merited—a perpetual suspicious conjecture that the views entertained of him were not to his advantage— a melancholy absence of passion in his efforts at achievement, and a passionate resistance to the confession that he had achieved nothing.

Source: Wikiquote · CC BY-SA 4.0