There is nothing so skilful in its own defence as imperious pride. […] Wounded vanity knows when it is… — Helen Hunt Jackson

There is nothing so skilful in its own defence as imperious pride. […] Wounded vanity knows when it is mortally hurt; and limps off the field, piteous, all disguises thrown away. But pride carries its banner to the last; and fast as it is driven from one field unfurls it in another, never admitting that there is a shade less honor in the second field than in the first, or in the third than in the second; and so on till death.

p. 206Source: Wikiquote · CC BY-SA 4.0