Sort of. Part of it is in the whole cult indoctrination aspect of the Sith. Yes, they're "evil" power hungry people, but part and parcel of that is the belief that the "best" will become the Master. It's the whole process of "I prove I'm the best because while I'm training someone to one day take power from me, I'm smart/strong enough to not be caught out, and when I do lose to them, it's because I trained them that damn well."
Of course the EU had a heap of extra helpings. I mean if I'm recalling correctly, Palpatine didn't actually kill his master until some point during the Phantom Menace. So his decade or so of training Maul was actually one of his many strategems , Palpatine was still in the "apprentice" role and he didn't consider Maul as a proper apprentice but just a tool to be used and disposed of later.