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vanity quotes

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“The consciousness of the falsity of present pleasures, and the ignorance of the vanity of absent pleasures, cause inconstancy.” Blaise Pascal, Pensées
“Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.” Jane Austen, Emma
“Yes, vanity is a weakness indeed. But pride—where there is a real superiority of mind, pride will be always under good regulation.” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
“There is, peradventure, no more manifest vanity than to write of it so vainly.” Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Michel de Montaigne
“Vanity Fair is a very vain, wicked, foolish place, full of all sorts of humbugs and falsenesses and pretensions.” William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair
“Vanity is becoming a nuisance; I can see why women give it up, eventually. But I’m not ready for that yet.” Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye
“He who does not see the vanity of the world is himself very vain.” Blaise Pascal, Pensées
“The vanity of others is only counter to our taste when it is counter to our vanity.” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
“Then I feel, Harry, that I have given away my whole soul to some one who treats it as if it were a flower to put in his coat, a bit of decoration to charm his vanity, an ornament for a summer's day.” Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
“Provided a man is not mad, he can be cured of any folly but vanity; there is no cure for this but experience, if indeed there is any cure for it at all” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, or On Education
“Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind! But vanity, not love, has been my folly.” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
“Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
“The charm of fame is so great, that we like every object to which it is attached, even death.” Blaise Pascal, Pensées
“And he was vain: I do not believe I have ever met a more physically attractive person who was more acutely aware of his own physical attractiveness.” John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
“the shameless vanity of utter fools can so strongly determine the fate of others.” Philip Roth, The Plot Against America
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” William Shakespeare, As You Like It
“I have had my share of vanity; for as a young man I was admired by women; and as a statue I am praised by art critics.” George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman
“It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us.” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
“Doubtless this persistence was the best course for his own dignity: but pride only helps us to be generous; it never makes us so, any more than vanity makes us witty.” George Eliot, Middlemarch
“The true knight of faith is a witness, never a teacher, and therein lies his deep humanity, which is worth a good deal more than this silly participation in others' weal and woe which is honored by the name of sympathy, whereas in fact it is...” Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling
“No wonder that God in His special grace subjects the ministers of the Gospel to all kinds of afflictions, otherwise they could not cope with this ugly beast called vainglory.” Martin Luther, Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians
“I had not, I said to myself, come into the future to carry on a miniature flirtation.” H. G. Wells, The Time Machine
“Besides, nothing makes one so vain as being told that one is a sinner. Conscience makes egotists of us all.” Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
“Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” James Joyce, Dubliners
“if you spend your life sparing people's feelings and feeding their vanity, you get so you can't distinguish what should be respected in them.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender Is the Night
“Gracious Providence, to whom I owe all my powers, why didst thou not withhold some of those blessings I possess, and substitute in their place a feeling of self-confidence and contentment?” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

Related topics

pride foolishness weakness ego love death wisdom women God power experience humility writing stupidity faith respect youth blindness hypocrisy romance

Related authors

Jane Austen (5)
Blaise Pascal (3)
Oscar Wilde (2)
William Shakespeare (1)
John Green (1)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1)
George Eliot (1)
James Joyce (1)
Michel de Montaigne (1)
George Bernard Shaw (1)
Margaret Atwood (1)
William Makepeace Thackeray (1)
Martin Luther (1)
H. G. Wells (1)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1)
Søren Kierkegaard (1)
Philip Roth (1)

Related sources

Pride and Prejudice (4)
Pensées (3)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (2)
Middlemarch (1)
Fear and Trembling (1)
As You Like It (1)
The Fault in Our Stars (1)
The Essays of Michel de Montaigne (1)
Vanity Fair (1)
Man and Superman (1)
Beyond Good and Evil (1)
Emma (1)
Tender Is the Night (1)
The Time Machine (1)
Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1)
The Sorrows of Young Werther (1)
Dubliners (1)
Emile, or On Education (1)
The Plot Against America (1)
Cat's Eye (1)