Conceit Quotes - Page 12

• The man of system, on the contrary, is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it... He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board. He does not consider that...in the great chess-board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own, altogether different from that which the legislature might choose to impress upon it.

  Adam Smith

  Wise, Men, Hands

  "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" by Adam Smith, (Section II, Chap. II), 1759.

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• Ain't nothing too discreet about the disease of conceit.

  Bob Dylan

  Disease, Egotism, Discreet

  Song: Disease of Conceit, Album: Oh Mercy, 1989

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• I never knew a man more free from conceit, or one to whom it was a greater extent a pleasure, as well as a recognized duty, to listen patiently to what might be said to him upon any subject under consideration....Neither, I need scarcely say, was he in the habit of talking, much less boasting, of his own achievements.

  Martin Van Buren

  Men, Talking, Might

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• We have heard of a Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. It is said that knowledge is power, and the like. Methinks there is equal need of a Society for the Diffusion of Useful Ignorance, what we will call Beautiful Knowledge, a knowledge useful in a higher sense: for what is most of our boasted so-called knowledge but a conceit that we know something, which robs us of the advantage of our actual ignorance? What we call knowledge is often our positive ignorance; ignorance our negative knowledge.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Beautiful, Ignorance, Negative

  Henry David Thoreau (2000). “Walden and Other Writings: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.669, Modern Library

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• To conclude, therefore, let no man upon a weak conceit of sobriety or an ill-applied moderation think or maintain that a man can search too far, or be too well studied in the book of God's word, or the book of God's works, divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavor an endless progress or proficience in both; only let men beware that they apply both to charity, and not to swelling; to use, and not to ostentation; and again, that they do not unwisely mingle or confound these learnings together.

  Francis Bacon

  Philosophy, Book, Men

  Francis Bacon (1824). “The Works of Francis Bacon: Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Albans, and Lord High Chancellor of England”, p.11

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• Till swollen with cunning, of a self-conceit, His waxen wings did mount above his reach, And, melting, Heavens conspir'd his overthrow.

  Christopher Marlowe

  Self, Wings, Heaven

  Christopher Marlowe (2005). “The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus”, p.49, Routledge

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• There are elements of that, where you'll see a scene again and you'll recognize it, but I wouldn't say it's got one conceit like that, at all. It definitely has those jokes, but it would be wrong to say this is a show where, every time you see it, you see a new angle.

  Mitchell Hurwitz

  Would Be, Elements, Scene

  Source: collider.com

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• There is simple ignorance, which is the source of lighter offenses, and double ignorance, which is accompanied by a conceit of wisdom.

  Aristotle

  Ignorance, Simple, Source

  Socrates, Plato, Aristotle (1967). “Wit and Wisdom of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle: Being a Treasury of Thousands of Glorious, Inspiring and Imperishable Thoughts, Views and Observations of the Three Great Greek Philosophers, Classified Under about Four Hundred Subjects for Comparative Study”

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• God in his wisdom circumscribed man's vision, and rightly too, for otherwise man's conceit would know no bounds.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  God, Men, Vision

  Mahatma Gandhi (1974). “Collected Works”

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• The framed tale is, in my opinion, one of the most natural ways to tell a story. If you think of it, the conceit of the frame-less story is actually the odd way of doing things. Without the frame, how do you know the context for a story?

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Thinking, Stories, Way

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• To let God make us, instead of painfully trying to make ourselves; to follow the path that his love shows us, instead of through conceit or cowardice or mockery choosing another; to trust Him for our strength and fitness as the flowers do, simply giving ourselves back to Him in grateful service,—this is to keep the laws that give us the freedom of the city in which there is no longer any night of bewilderment or ignorance or uncertainty.

  Sarah Orne Jewett

  Flower, Grateful, Ignorance

  Sarah Orne Jewett (2008). “A Country Doctor”, p.238, Bantam Classics

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• Opinionum enim commenta delet dies; naturæ judicia confirmat.
  Time destroys the groundless conceits of men; it confirms decisions founded on reality.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Time, Reality, Men

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• Therefore be on your guard against the Jews, knowing that wherever they have their synagogues, nothing is found but a den of devils in which sheer self-glory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and defaming of God and men are practiced most maliciously and veheming his eyes on them.

  Martin Luther

  Religious, Lying, Eye

  "On the Jews and Their Lies". Book by Martin Luther, 1543.

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• Very little in science fiction can transcend the gimmickry of a technical conceit, yet without that conceit at its heart a book is not truly science fiction. Furthermore, so little emerging thought and technology is employed by sf writers today that the genre is lagging far behind reality both in the cosmology area and the technology area: sf is no longer a place to experiment, but is now very derivative.

  Janet Morris

  Book, Heart, Technology

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• When strong, avoid them. If of high morale, depress them. Seem humble to fill them with conceit. If at ease, exhaust them. If united, separate them. Attack their weaknesses. Emerge to their surprise.

  Sun Tzu

  Depressing, Art, Strong

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• Conceit is a sure sign of insecurity; humility denotes awareness.

  Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

  Humility, Insecurity, Awareness

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• Often Satan injects pride into the believer's spirit, evoking in him an attitude of self-importance and of self-conceit. He causes him to esteem himself a very outstanding person, one who is indispensable in God's work. Such a spirit constitutes one of the major reasons for the fall of believers.

  Watchman Nee

  Attitude, Fall, Pride

  Watchman Nee (2009). “The Spiritual Man”, p.555, Christian Fellowship Publishers

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• Listen to me: everything you think you know, every relationship you've ever taken for granted, every plan or possibility you've ever hatched, every conceit or endeavor you've ever concocted, can be stripped from you in an instant. Sooner or later, it will happen. So prepare yourself. Be ready not to be ready. Be ready to be brought to your knees and beaten to dust. Because no stable foundation, no act of will, no force of cautious habit will save you from this fact: nothing is indestructible.

  Jonathan Evison

  Taken, Thinking, Dust

  Jonathan Evison (2013). “The Fundamentals of Caring”, p.221, Head of Zeus

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• For all our conceits about being the center of the universe, we live in a routine planet of a humdrum star stuck away in an obscure corner ... on an unexceptional galaxy which is one of about 100 billion galaxies. ... That is the fundamental fact of the universe we inhabit, and it is very good for us to understand that.

  Carl Sagan

  Stars, Humility, Political

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• The sea is masculine, the type of active strength. Look, what egg-shells are drifting all over it, each one, like ours, filled with men in ecstasies of terror, alternating with cockney conceit, as the sea is rough or smooth. Is this sad-colored circle an eternal cemetery?

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Sea, Circles

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1872). “Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life”, p.172

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• Enough of these phrases, conceit and metaphors,
  I want burning, burning, burning.

  Rumi

  Inspirational, Want, Phrases

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• Writers sometimes talk as though they were the only friends of civilization. This is their conceit. But they have special powers to serve -- or to corrupt -- civilization, and are obliged to use them.

  Storm Jameson

  Civilization, Special, Use

  Storm Jameson (2011). “The Journal of Mary Hervey Russell”, p.131, A&C Black

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• The need for sociability induce man to be in touch with his fellow men. However, this need might not ("ne saurait", Fr.) find its full (or complete) satisfaction in the conventional (or superficial, - "conventionnel", Fr.) and deceitful world, in which (or where) everyone is mainly (or mostly) trying to assert oneself in front of others ("devant les autres", Fr.), to appear, and hoping to find in society ("mondaine", Fr.) relationships some advantages for his interest and vanity (or vainglory or conceit", Fr).

  African Spir

  Men, Vanity, Trying

  "Paroles d'un sage: Choix de pensées d'African Spir" ("Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir") by Hélène Claparède-Spir, (p. 53), 1937.

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• The idea that an author can extricate her or his own ongoing life experience from the tale being written is a conceit of very little worth.

  Steven Erikson

  Ideas, Ongoing, Littles

  "Why Did You Bother Telling Me That?". Interview with Peter Orullian, www.tor.com. August 13, 2012.

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• There are many kinds of conceit, but the chief one is to let people know what a very ancient and gifted family one descends from.

  Benvenuto Cellini

  People, Ancestry, Kind

  Benvenuto Cellini (1956). “The Autobiography”

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