For my money Hamlet is the character from literature with the best grasp of existential reality. But for the more prosaic day-to-day truth, Mr Micawber has it nailed.
dickens
‘My dear Mr Clennam,’ returned Ferdinand, laughing, ‘have you really such a verdant hope? The next man who has as large a capacity and as genuine a taste for swindling, will succeed as well. Pardon me, but I think you really have no idea how the human bees will swarm to the beating of any [...]