‘I tell you all’, said the manager, ‘that your hypocrisy and meekness – that all the hypocrisy and meekness of this place – is not worth that to me,’ snapping his thumb and finger, ‘and that I see through it as if it were air! There is not a man employed here, standing between myself and the lowest in place (of whom you are very considerate, and with reason, for he is not far off), who wouldn’t be glad at heart to see his master humbled: who does not hate him secretly: who does not wish him evil rather than good: and who would not turn upon him, if he had the power and boldness. The nearer to his favour, the nearer to his insolence; the closer to him the farther from him. That’s the creed here!”
Charles Dickens, “Dombey and Son”
A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity 