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Vanity quotes

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“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” William Shakespeare, “As You Like It” - 1623

“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” - 28 January 1813

“It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us.” Jane Austen, “Pride and Prejudice” - 28 January 1813

“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” - 1890

“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” - 1903

“Vanity Fair is a very vain, wicked, foolish place, full of all sorts of humbugs and falsenesses and pretensions.” William Makepeace Thackeray, “Vanity Fair” - 1847

“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” - 2012

“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” - 1872

“I had not, I said to myself, come into the future to carry on a miniature flirtation.” H. G. Wells, “The Time Machine” - 1895

“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” - 1774

“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” - 1535

“The charm of fame is so great, that we like every object to which it is attached, even death.” Blaise Pascal, “Pensées” - 1670

“There is, peradventure, no more manifest vanity than to write of it so vainly.” Michel de Montaigne, “The Essays of Michel de Montaigne” - 1580

“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” - 1843

“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” - 28 January 1813

“Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.” Jane Austen, “Emma” - 1815

“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” - 28 January 1813

“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” - 1934

“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” - 1988

“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” - 1914

“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” - 1890

“The vanity of others is only counter to our taste when it is counter to our vanity.” Friedrich Nietzsche, “Beyond Good and Evil” - 1886

Related topics

pride weakness ego love women wisdom death conscience youth blindness foolishness modesty God romance sin narcissism futility flirtation hypocrisy stupidity

Related authors

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

Related sources

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