Vanity Quotes

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

It is only very ugly or very beautiful women who ever hide their faces .

Pride indemnifies itself and loses nothing even when it casts away vanity.

(A unified) 'Europe' is the result of plans. It is, in fact, a classic utopian project, a monument to the vanity of intellectuals, a programme whose inevitable destiny is failure: only the scale of the final damage done is in doubt.

Nothing is more ridiculous in old people that were once good-looking, than to forget that they are not so still.

All the excesses, all the violence, and all the vanity of great men, come from the fact that they know not what they are: it being difficult for those who regard themselves at heart asequal with all men... For this it is necessary for one to forget himself, and to believe that he has some real excellence above them, in which consists this illusion that I am endeavoring todiscover to you.

It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinions than our own.

The vanity of others runs counter to our taste only when it runs counter to our vanity.

We must not be so ready to fancy ourselves intentionally injured. We must not expect a lively young man to be always so guarded and circumspect. It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us. Women fancy admiration means more than it does.

Our vanity would have just that which we do best count as that which is hardest for us. The origin of many a morality.

I have not the capability to give you my loyalty, nor do I have the vanity to appear as if I did.

Flattery is a counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation.

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.

We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all.

How vain painting is, exciting admiration by its resemblance to things of which we do not admire the originals.

People are more slanderous from vanity than from malice.

Many a peacock hides his peacock tail from all eyes--and calls it his pride.

The common foible of women who have been handsome is to forget that they are no longer so.

Vanity is a mark of humility rather than of pride.

Women play with their beauty as children do with their knives. They wound themselves with it.

Every one speaks well of his own heart, but no one dares speak well of his own mind.

All natural goods perish. Riches take wings; fame is a breath; love is a cheat; youth and health and pleasure vanish.

After all, what does fame everlasting mean? Mere vanity.

Vanity, not love, has been my folly.

We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess. Sometimes we are too close to the scene, to see clearly. We "know" ourselves so well that we cannot see how we are perceived by others. Our opinion of ourselves is only "one" opinion and it may not be the truth.

Love does not traffic in a marketplace, nor use a huckster's scales. Its joy, like the joy of the intellect, is to feel itself alive. The aim of Love is to love: no more, and no less. You were my enemy: such an enemy as no man ever had. I had given you all my life, and to gratify the lowest and most contemptible of all human passions, hatred and vanity and greed, you had thrown it away. In less than three years you had entirely ruined me in every point of view. For my own sake there was nothing for me to do but to love you.

Vanity is a desire of personal glory, the wish to be appreciated, honoured, and run after, not because of one's personal qualities, merits, and achievements, but because of one's individual existence. At best, therefore, it is a frivolous beauty whim it befits.

Beauty's a doubtful good, a glass, a flower, Lost, faded, broken, dead within an hour; And beauty, blemish'd once, for ever's lost, In spite of physic, painting, pain, and cost.

There is no restraining men's tongues or pens when charged with a little vanity.

They say that you can't live by bread alone, but I can live on compliments.

This made me reflect, how vain an attempt it is for a man to endeavor to do himself honor among those who are out of all degree of equality or comparison with him.

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 who are within his sphere of action: and therefore, in many cases, it would not be altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for his vanity among the other comforts of life.

[You write out of the] desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, etc., etc., etc. It is humbug to pretend this is not a motive and a strong one.

Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.

Vanity can apply to both insecurity and egotism.

We sometimes imagine we hate flattery, but we only hate the way we are flattered.

People that are conceited of their own merit take pride in being unfortunate, that themselves and others may think them considerable enough to be the envy and the mark of fortune.

The necessity of saying something, the embarrassment produced by the consciousness of having nothing to say, and the desire to exhibit ability, are three things sufficient to render even a great man ridiculous.

And could I look upon her without compassion, seeing her punishment in the ruin she was, in her profound unfitness for this earth on which she was placed, in the vanity of sorrow which had become a master mania, like the vanity of penitence, the vanity of remorse, the vanity of unworthiness, and other monstrous vanities that have been curses in this world?

We always like those who admire us.

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.

Power gives no purchase to the hand, it will not hold, soon perishes, and greatness goes.

That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once: how the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder! It might be the pate of a politician, which this ass now o'er-reaches; one that would circumvent God, might it not?

Yes, vanity is a weakness indeed. But pride - where there is a real superiority of mind, pride will be always under good regulation.

Curiosity is nothing more than vanity. More often than not we only seek knowledge to show it off.

Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that.

Vanity is the quicksand of reason.

Curiosity is only vanity. We usually only want to know something so that we can talk about it.

This autobiography of mine is a mirror, and I am looking at myself in it all the time. Incidentally I notice the people that pass along at my back - I get glimpses of them in the mirror - and whenever they say or do anything that can help advertise me and flatter me and raise me in my own estimation, I set these things down in my autobiography.

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

Men are often so foolish as to boast and value themselves upon their passions, even those that are most vicious. But envy is a passion so full of cowardice and shame that no one every ever had the confidence to own it.

How vain is painting, which is admired for reproducing the likeness of things whose originals are not admired.

Flattery is false money, which would not be current were it not for our vanity.

When we enlarge upon the affection our friends have for us, this is very often not so much out of a sense of gratitude as from a desire to persuade people of our own great worth, that can deserve so much kindness.

To pace about, looking to obtain status, looking to attain 'importance' - I can think of nothing more ridiculous.

When great men permit themselves to be cast down by the continuance of misfortune, they show us that they were only sustained by ambition, and not by their mind; so that PLUS a great vanity, heroes are made like other men.

If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could never harm us.

No animal admires another animal.

Generosity is the vanity of giving.

Who has not for the sake of his reputation sacrificed himself?