Yet, in fact, we did not pull together.

My sister was more richly endowed by nature than I, and won favour more easily.

Never did I envy a human being as I envied her, until in later years, and under altered circumstances, I learned to love her rightly, and to rejoice over her advantages.
We were not very rich, and we cast a philosophically compassionate glance upon all who were richer than we, who lived in a more liberal manner, had more splendid equipages, or who dressed themselves more elegantly.

"What folly--what pitiable vanity!" said we: "poor people, who know nothing better!" We never thought that our philosophy was somewhat akin to the fox and the grapes.
If we looked in this manner upon the advantages of the great, we despised still more the pleasures of the crowd.

(We ought to be so all-sufficient for ourselves.