quotations about vanity
Vanity is a confounded donkey, very apt to put his head between his legs and chuck us over.
FREDERICK MARRYAT
attributed, Day's Collacon
In the age of Instagram, when every famous face is potentially subject to an iPhone ambush, extreme vanity is more necessity than sin.
GUY TREBAY
"Dermatologist to the famous: The doctor will see you now (if you're a star with a zit)", Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette, April 30, 2017
Human vanity is so constituted that it stiffens before difficulties. The more an object conceals itself from our eyes, the greater the effort we make to seize it, because it pricks our pride, it excites our curiosity and it appears interesting. In fighting for his God everyone, in fact, fights only for the interest of his own vanity, which, of all the passions produced bye the mal-organization of society, is the quickest to take offense, and the most capable of committing the greatest follies.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
The Necessity of Atheism and Other Essays
Most People dislike Vanity in others whatever Share they have of it themselves, but I give it fair Quarter wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of Good to the Possessor and to others that are within his Sphere of Action: And therefore in many Cases it would not be quite absurd if a Man were to thank God for his Vanity among the other Comforts of Life.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Autobiography
V is for vanity, every time I look at me
I turn myself on, yeah
CHRISTINA AGUILERA
"Vanity"
Vanity is often so excessive, that those who are compelled to walk on crutches would fain make us believe they are raised on stilts.
ELIZA COOK
Diamond Dust
Everywhere you find the man of thews and sinews who toils, and the lymphatic man who torments himself; and pleasures are everywhere the same, for when all sensations are exhausted, all that survives is Vanity--Vanity is the abiding substance of us, the I in us.
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
Physiology of Marriage
That was the source of my vanity and my cowardice: always I believed everyone was watching me.
ANDRE DUBUS
"The Judge and Other Snakes", Broken Vessels
What people regard as vanity--leaving great works, having children, acting in such a way as to prevent one's name from being forgotten--I regard as the highest expression of human dignity.
PAULO COELHO
The Pilgrimage
There is nothing which so carries the mass of men along with it as that which flatters the vanity of the human mind. It may assume the lowliest air, but sinful man seeks his own honour and present exaltation.
WILLIAM KELLY
Lectures Introductory to the Study of the Minor Prophets
To be a man's own fool is bad enough; but the vain man is everybody's.
WILLIAM PENN
Fruits of Solitude
If vanity does not overthrow all virtues, at least she makes them totter.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
The tyrant is a child of Pride
Who drinks from his sickening cup
Recklessness and vanity,
Until from his high crest headlong
He plummets to the dust of hope.
SOPHOCLES
Oedipus Rex
False modesty is the last refinement of vanity.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
attributed, Day's Collacon
A man's vanity is more fragile that you might think. It's easy for us to mistake shyness for coldness, and silence for indifference.
LISA KLEYPAS
Devil in Winter
A cultivated and decent man cannot be vain without setting a fearfully high standard for himself, and without despising and almost hating himself at certain moments.
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY
Notes from Underground
It is our own vanity that makes the vanity of others intolerable to us.
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Maxims
Vanity (pictures in magazines, movie screens)
Vanity (there is a camera, so many beauty queens)
Vanity (it's so good to be)
Fabulous and glamourous, we love ourselves and no one else
Va-va-va-va-vanity va-vanity, va-va-va-vanity
LADY GAGA
"Vanity"
Alas for human nature, that the wounds of vanity should smart and bleed so much longer than the wounds of affection!
THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY
Essays and Lays of Ancient Rome
Once scorned as an affliction of the overly self-involved, vanity is lately being embraced as a novel kind of positive reinforcement to encourage healthier lifestyles. Researchers are finding that healthy versions of vanity can help us adapt and adhere to better diets, more rigorous skin-care routines, and regular exercise--the kinds of preventive health measures that may have a lasting impact on one's life span.
VALLI HERMAN
"Why Vanity Is Good for You", Robb Report, February 23, 2017