Vanity, I am sensible, is my cardinal vice and cardinal folly; and I am in continual danger, when in company, of being led an ignis fatuus chase by it.
—John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd US President, Founding Father, Statesman
Vanity plays lurid tricks with our memory.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
The vainest woman is never thoroughly conscious of her beauty till she is loved by the man who sets her own passion vibrating in return.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Cure yourself of the affliction of caring how you appear to others. Concern yourself only with how you appear before God, concern yourself only with the idea that God may have of you.
—Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) Spanish Educator, Philosopher, Author
Vanity and dignity are incompatible with each other; vain women are almost sure to be vulnerable.
—Alfred de Musset (1810–57) French Dramatist, Poet, Novelist
There was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
We are so presumptuous that we wish to be known to all the world, even to those who come after us; and we are so vain that the esteem of five or six persons immediately around us is enough to amuse and satisfy us.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
Vanity is so anchored in the heart of man that a soldier, sutler, cook, street porter, vapor and wish to have their admirers; and philosophers even wish the same. Those who write against it wish to have the glory of having written well; and those who read it wish to have the glory of having read well; and I, who write this, have perhaps this desire; and perhaps those who will read this.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
People who are very vain are usually equally susceptible; and they who feel one thing acutely, will so feel another.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Conceit is a strange disease. It makes everyone else sick except the person who has it.
—Unknown
Virtue would not go to such lengths if vanity did not keep her company.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
A vain man finds his account in speaking good or evil of himself.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
The hair is the richest ornament of women.—Of old, virgins used to wear it loose, except when they were in mourning.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
A vain man can never be altogether rude.—Desirous as he is of pleasing, he fashions his manners after those of others.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The knowledge of yourself will preserve you from vanity.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves; vanity, to what we would have others think of us.
—Jane Austen (1775–1817) English Novelist
If you done it, it ain’t bragging.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist
What is the vanity of the vainest man compared with the vanity which the most modest possesses when, in the midst of nature and the world, he feels himself to be “man”!
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
The only cure for vanity is laughter, and the only fault that is laughable is vanity.
—Henri Bergson (1859–1941) French Philosopher, Evolutionist
Vanity is the natural weakness of an ambitious man, which exposes him to the secret scorn and derision of those he converses with, and ruins the character he is so industrious to advance by it.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
Offended vanity is the great separator in social life.
—Arthur Helps (1813–75) British Essayist, Historian
Ostentation is the signal flag of hypocrisy.—The charlatan is verbose and assumptive; the Pharisee is ostentatious, because he is a hypocrite.—Pride is the master sin of the devil, and the devil is the father of lies.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
Vanity keeps persons in favor with themselves who are out of favor with all others.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Whatever accomplishment you boast of in the world, there is someone better than you.
—African Proverb
See the man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
A man’s own vanity is a swindler that never lacks for a dupe.
—Honore de Balzac (1799–1850) French Novelist
Without this ridiculous vanity that takes the form of self-display, and is part of everything and everyone, we would see nothing, and nothing would exist.
—Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Poet
Vanity dies hard; in some obstinate cases it outlives the man.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
All is vanity, look you; and so the preacher is vanity too.
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63) English Novelist
Throughout the centuries, man has considered himself beautiful. I rather suppose that man only believes in his own beauty out of pride; that he is not really beautiful and he suspects this himself; for why does he look on the face of his fellow-man with such scorn?
—Comte de Lautreamont (1846–1870) French Symbolist Poet
Leave a Reply