"It is sure that those are most desirous of honour or glory who cry out loudest of its abuse and the vanity of the world."
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Vanity quotes
Vanity
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Vanity quotes (page 10 of 48)
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"The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess ... It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion."
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"I scarce ever heard or saw the introductory words, "Without vanity I may say," etc., but some vain thing immediately followed."
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"There is much money given to be laughed at, though the purchasers don't know it; witness A.'s fine horse, and B.'s fine house."
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"Vanity is so closely allied to virtue, and to love the fame of laudable actions approaches so near the love of laudable actions for their own sake, that these passions are more capable of mixture than any other kinds of affection; and it is almost impossible to have the latter without some degree of the former."
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"Does not vanity itself cease to be blamable, is it not even ennobled, when it is directed to laudable objects, when it confines itself to prompting us to great and generous actions?"
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"The consciousness of the falsity of present pleasures, and the ignorance of the vanity of absent pleasures, cause inconstancy."
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"The act of love . . . is a confession. Selfishness screams aloud, vanity shows off, or else true generosity reveals itself."
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"The individual feels the vanity of human desires and aims, and the nobility and marvelous order which are revealed in nature and in the world of thought. He feels the individual destiny as an imprisonment and seeks to experience the totality of existence as a unity full of significance."
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"Our civilization survives in the complacency of cowardly or malignant minds -- a sacrifice to the vanity of aging adolescents"
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"The whole vanity aspect of building up different muscles - I have no interest."
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"No; for instead of delivering myself up to the full enjoyment of the as others do, I am always troubling my head about how I could produce the same effect upon canvas; and as that can never be done, it is mere vanity and vexation of spirit."
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"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."
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"Never expect justice from a vain man; if he has the negative magnanimity not to disparage you, it is the most you can expect."
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"It is easy to pity when once one's vanity has been tickled."
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"Light vanity, insatiate cormorant, Consuming means, soon preys upon itself."
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"There was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass."
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"Meek Nature's evening comment on the shows That for oblivion take their daily birth From all the fuming vanities of earth."
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"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."
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"Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense. He whom nature has made weak, and idleness keeps ignorant, may yet support his vanity by the name of a critic."
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