This man [Chesterfield], I thought, had been a lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among lords.Samuel Johnson(Boswells Life): vol. ii. ch. i.
A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge.William Cowper: Conversation, line 298.
Although too much of a soldier among sovereigns, no one could claim with better right to be a sovereign among soldiers.Sir Walter Scott: Life of Napoleon.
He [Steele] was a rake among scholars, and a scholar among rakes.Thomas B. Macaulay: Review of Aikins Life of Addison.
Temple was a man of the world among men of letters, a man of letters among men of the world.Thomas B. Macaulay: Review of Life and Writings of Sir William Temple.
Greswell in his Memoirs of Politian says that Sannazarius himself, inscribing to this lady [Cassandra Marchesia] an edition of his Italian Poems, terms her delle belle eruditissima, delle erudite bellissima (most learned of the fair; fairest of the learned).
Qui stultis videri eruditi volunt stulti eruditis videntur (Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish).Quintilian, x. 7. 22. [back]