"There is no vice or folly that..." - Quote by Jonathan Swift
There is no vice or folly that requires so much nicety and skill to manage as vanity; nor any which by ill management makes so contemptible a figure.
More by Jonathan Swift
“Books, like men their authors, have no more than one wayofcoming intothe world, but there areten thousand to go out of it, and return no more.”
“By candle-light nobody would have taken you for above five-and-twenty.”
“O Grub Street! how do I bemoan thee, whose graceless children scorn to own thee! . Yet thou hast greater cause to be ashamed of them, than they of thee.”
More on Vanity
“But bear in mind your lover's wageIs what your looking-glass can show,And that he will turn green with rageAt all that is not pictured there.”
“Thefts never enrich; alms never impoverish; murder will speak out of stone walls. The least admixture of a lie-for example, the taint of vanity, the least attempt to make a good impression, a favorable appearance-will instantly vitiate the effect.”
“Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them.”
More on Vice
“What often prevents our abandoning ourselves to a single vice is, our having more than one.”
“Pride is handsome, economical; pride eradicates so many vices, letting none subsist but itself, that it seems as if it were a great gain to exchange vanity for pride.”
“The virtues of society are the vices of the saints.”