The unaffected of every country nearly resemble each other, and a page of Confucius and Tillotson have scarce any material difference, paltry affectation, strained allusions, and disgusting finery are easily attained by those who choose to wear them; they are but too frequently the badges of ignorance or of stupidity whenever it would endeavor to please.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
The tenor’s voice is spoilt by affectation, And for the bass, the beast can only bellow; In fact, he had no singing education, An ignorant, noteless, timeless, tuneless fellow
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Affectation hides three times as many virtues as charity does sins.
—Horace Mann (1796–1859) American Educator, Politician, Educationalist
One of the best temporary cures for pride and affection is seasickness; a man who wants to vomit never puts on airs.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
Affectation is certain deformity.—By forming themselves on fantastic models the young begin with being ridiculous, and often end in being vicious.
—Hugh Blair (1718–1800) Scottish Preacher, Scholar, Critic
There Affectation, with a sickly mien, Shows in her cheek the roses of eighteen.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
I by no means rank poetry high in the scale of intelligence—this may look like affectation but it is my real opinion. It is the lava of the imagination whose eruption prevents an earthquake.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Affection endeavors to correct natural defects, and has always the laudable aim of pleasing, though it always misses it.
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
The man of affectation may, perhaps, be reclaimed, by finding how little he is likely to gain by perpetual constraint and incessant vigilance, and how much more securely he might make his way to esteem, by cultivating real, than by displaying counter
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humour of a scholar
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Affectation naturally counterfeits those excellences which are placed at the greatest distance from possibility of attainment, because, knowing our own defects, we eagerly endeavor to supply them with artificial excellence
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Affectation is an awkward and forced imitation of what should be genuine and easy, wanting the beauty that accompanies what is natural.
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
Affectation is as necessary to the mind as dress is to the body
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
Affectation is a very good word when someone does not wish to confess to what he would none the less like to believe of himself.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
Affectation is the product of falsehood
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Affectation in any part of our carriage is but the lighting up of a candle to show our defects, and never fails to make us taken notice of, either as wanting in sense or sincerity.
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
It is indeed not easy to distinguish affectation from habit; he that has once studiously developed a style, rarely writes afterwards with complete ease
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Great vices are the proper objects of our detestation, smaller faults of our pity, but affectation appears to be the only true source of the ridiculous
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
All affectation proceeds from the supposition of possessing something better than the rest of the world possesses. Nobody is vain of possessing two legs and two arms, because that is the precise quantity of either sort of limb which everybody possesses.
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
All affectation is the vain and ridiculous attempt of poverty to appear rich.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet
Among the numerous stratagems by which pride endeavors to recommend folly to regard, there is scarcely one that meets with less success than affectation, or a perpetual disguise of the real character by fictitious appearances
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
We are never so ridiculous from the habits we have as from those that we affect to have.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
In all the professions every one affects a particular look and exterior, in order to appear what he wishes to be thought; so that it may be said the world is made up of appearances
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
Don’t laugh at a youth for his affectations; he’s only trying on one face after another till he finds his own
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
Affectation differs from hypocrisy in being the art of counterfeiting qualities which we might with innocence and safety be known to want.—Hypocrisy is the necessary burden of villainy; affectation, a part of the chosen trappings of folly.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Cowardice and courage are never without a measure of affectation. Nor is love. Feelings are never true. They play with their mirrors.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
All affectation; ’tis my perfect scorn;
Object of my implacable disgust.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
The thing is plain. All that men really understand, is confined to a very small compass; to their daily affairs and experience; to what they have an opportunity to know, and motives to study or practice. The rest is affectation and imposture.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
The characteristic of coquettes is affectation governed by whim.—Their life is one constant lie; and the only rule by which you can form any judgment of them, is, that they are never what they seem.
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
Your virtue is your greatest affectation.
—William Wycherley (c.1640–1716) English Dramatist
Almost every man wastes part of his life in attempts to display qualities which he does not possess, and to gain applause which he cannot keep.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Affectation proceeds from one of these two causes,—vanity or hypocrisy; for as vanity puts us on affecting false characters, in order to purchase applause; so hypocrisy sets us on an endeavor to avoid censure, by concealing our vices under an appearance of their opposite virtues
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
It is remarkable that great affectation and great absence of it (unconsciousness) are at first sight very similar; they are both apt to produce singularity
—Richard Whately (1787–1863) English Philosopher, Theologian
Great cultural changes begin in affectation and end in routine.
—Jacques Barzun (b.1907) French-born American Historian, Philosophers
I must confess I am a fop in my heart; ill customs influence my very senses, and I have been so used to affectation that without the help of the air of the court what is natural cannot touch me.
—George Etherege (c.1635–91) English Dramatist
We are never rendered so ridiculous by qualities which we possess, as by those which we aim at, or affect to have.
—French Proverb
Affectation lights a candle to our defects, and though it may gratify ourselves, it disgusts all others
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet
Any affectation whatsoever in dress implies, in my mind, a flaw in the understanding.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
Avoid all singularity and affectation.—What is according to nature is best, while what is contrary to it is always distasteful. Nothing is graceful that is not our own.
—Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) Anglican Church Historian, Clergyman