La Rochefoucauld §laroch_092: To awaken a man who is deceived as to his own merit is to do him as bad a tur...

To awaken a man who is deceived as to his own merit is to do him as bad a turn as that done to the Athenian madman who was happy in believing that all the ships touching at the port belonged to him. [That is, they cured him. The madman was Thrasyllus, son of Pythodorus. His brother Crito cured him, when he infinitely regretted the time of his more pleasant madness.--See Aelian, Var. Hist. iv. 25. So Horace-- ------------"Pol, me occidistis, amici, Non servastis," ait, "cui sic extorta voluptas Et demptus per vim mentis gratissimus error." HOR. EP. ii--2, 138, of the madman who was cured of a pleasant lunacy.]