But tell me, Lord, You who alone reign without arrogance, because You alone are the true Lord who have no Lord: tell me whether a third kind of temptation has passed from me or can it ever pass wholly in this life–the desire to be feared and loved by men for no other reason than the joy I get from it, which is no true joy? It is a lamentable state, a base vaingloriousness. From this is comes that men neither love You utterly nor fear You with righteous fear: thus it is that You resist the proud but give grace to the humble. You thunder upon the ambition of this world and the foundations of the mountains tremble. But because certain offices in human society require the holder to be loved and feared by men, the enemy of our true beatitude presses hard on me, spreading all about me his snares of Well done, Well done; and while I receive praises too eagerly, I lose caution and am caught by them, and so separate my joy from the truth and place it in the deceitfulness of men…
St. Augustine, Confessions, translated by F.J. Sheed, Book Ten: XXXVI.