Vanity
28 quotes
Biography
"Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter Elliot's character; vanity of person and of situation."
"It beareth the name of Vanity Fair, because the town where it is kept is "lighter than vanity.""
"That was the source of my vanity and my cowardice: always I believed everyone was watching me."
"Vanitas vanitatum, dixit Ecclesiastes, vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas."
"… when we place our hope in worldly vanities, in money, in success. Then the Word of God says to us: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”. Why are you searching there? That thing cannot give you life! Yes, perhaps it will cheer you up for a moment, for a day, for a week, for a month … and then?"
"Vanity not only distances us from God: it makes us look ridiculous."
"I scarce ever heard or saw the introductory words, "Without vanity I may say," &c., but some vain thing immediately followed. 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 altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for his vanity among the other comforts of life."
"There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless."
"Vanity is the real lever with which Archimedes said he could move the earth;..."
"Nothing deceives its possessor like vanity."
"Deception, flattering, lying, deluding, talking behind the back, putting up a false front, living in borrowed splendor, wearing a mask, hiding behind convention, playing a role for others and for oneself — in short, a continuous fluttering around the solitary flame of vanity — is so much the rule and the law among men that there is almost nothing which is less comprehensible than how an honest and pure drive for truth could have arisen among them."
"Our vanity would have just that which we do best count as that which is hardest for us. The origin of many a morality."
"The vanity of others is only counter to our taste when it is counter to our vanity."
"That something so obvious as the vanity of the world should be so little recognized that people find it odd and surprising to be told that it is foolish to seek greatness; that is most remarkable."
"Cada um tem a sua vaidade, e a vaidade de cada um é o seu esquecimento de que há outros com alma igual."
"And not a vanity is given in vain."
"Provided a man is not mad, he can be cured of every folly but vanity; there is no cure for this but experience, if indeed there is any cure for it at all."
"Vanity, like laudanum, and other poisonous medicines, is beneficial in small, though injurious in large quantities. No man, who is not pleased with himself, even in a personal sense, can please others."
"Certainly human life, like all inferior goods, is covered on the outside with a false glitter; what suffers always conceals itself. On the other hand, everyone parades whatever pomp and splendour he can obtain by effort, and the more he is wanting in inner contentment, the more he desires to stand out as a lucky and fortunate person in the opinion of others. Folly goes to such lengths, and the opinion of others is a principal aim of the efforts of everyone, although the complete futility of this is expressed by the fact that in almost all languages vanity, vanitas, originally signifies emptiness and nothingness."
"Hoy-day, what a sweep of vanity comes this way!"
"Have we raised ourselves up to that outlook opposed to the world, and have we tried to destroy the esteem and love for it in all hearts?"
"Every man at his best state is altogether vanity."
"Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance they are altogether lighter than vanity."
"Il est difficile d'estimer quelqu'un comme il veut l'être."
"I never thought, 'Oh God, I'm in Prince's shadow.' He'd been performing for years, and he was my teacher."