Those who boast of their decent, brag on what they owe to others.

Those who boast of their descent, brag on what they owe to others.

If you have to boast about what you do for a living to attract attention, attraction or approval, then you’re seeking the wrong kind of people for it has nothing to do with who you are and everything to do with what you do. Is that the kind of people you want? The ones who are more attracted to your status than you?

The warrior who goes off to battle should not boast as the one who returns from it.

Maybe less you have, the more you are required to boast.

It is very queer, but not the less true, that people are generally quite as vain, or even more so, of their deficiencies than of their available gifts; as was Hepzibah of this native inapplicability, so to speak, of the Pyncheons to any useful purpose.