"Virtue would go far if vanity did..." - Quote by Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“The greatest of all gifts is the power to estimate things at their true worth”

“Sometimes we think we dislike flattery, but it is only the way it is done that we dislike.”

“The gallantry of the mind consists in agreeable flattery.”

“The higher type of man clings to virtue, the lower type of man clings to material comfort. The higher type of man cherishes justice, the lower type of man cherishes the hope of favors to be received.”

“Ugly deeds are most estimable when hidden.”

“No ability, no strength and force, no power of intellect or power of wealth, shall avail us, if we have not the root of right living in us.”

“Pride is an established conviction of one’s own paramount worth in some particular respect, while vanity is the desire of rousing such a conviction in others, and it is generally accompanied by the secret hope of ultimately coming to the same conviction oneself. Pride works from within; it is the direct appreciation of oneself. Vanity is the desire to arrive at this appreciation indirectly, from without.”

“Mankind naturally and generally love to be flatter'd.”

“Light vanity, insatiate cormorant, Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.”