Vanity Quotes - Page 36

• The vanity of loving fine clothes and new fashion, and placing value on ourselves by them is one of the most childish pieces of folly.

  Matthew Hale

  Fashion, Clothes, Pieces

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• 'Tis solitude should teach us how to die; It hath no flatterers; vanity can give, No hollow aid; alone - man with God must strive.

  Lord Byron

  Men, Alone Man, Giving

  Lord Byron (1854). “Childe Harold's pilgrimage”, p.188

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• The great secret of education is to direct vanity to proper objects.

  Adam Smith

  Secret, Objects, Direct

  Adam Smith (1817). “The Theory of Moral Sentiments: Or, An Essay Towards an Analysis of the Principles by which Men Naturally Judge Concerning the Conduct and Character, First of Their Neighbours, and Afterwards of Themselves : to which is Added, A Dissertation on the Origin of Languages”, p.421

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• Any working composer or painter or sculptor will tell you that inspiration comes at the eighth hour of labour, rather than as a bolt out of the blue. We have to get our vanities and our preconceptions out of the way and do the work in the time allotted.

  John Towner Williams

  Inspiration, Blue, Way

  "The force is with him". Interview with Stephen Moss, www.theguardian.com. February 3, 2002.

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• When therefore the first spark of a desire after God arises in thy soul, cherish it with all thy care, give all thy heart into it; it is nothing less than a touch of the divine loadstone, that is to draw thee out of the vanity of time, into the riches of eternity.

  William Law

  Christian, Religious, Heart

  William Law (1749). “I. The spirit of prayer; or, the soul rising out of the vanity of time, into the riches of eternity. In two parts ; 7,II. The way to divine knowledge; being several dialogues between Humanus, Academicus, Rusticus, and Theophilus”, p.47

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• Whatever littleness and vanity is to be observed in the minds of women, it is, like the cruelty of butchers, a temper that is wrought into them by that life which they are taught and accustomed to lead.

  William Law

  Christian, Religious, Mind

  William Law, P. G. Stanwood (1978). “A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life ; The Spirit of Love”, p.263, Paulist Press

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• Vanity, I am sensible, is my cardinal vice and cardinal folly; and I am in continual danger, when in company, of being led an ignis fatuus chase by it.

  John Adams

  Vices, Danger, Cardinals

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1850). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.16

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• Natural amiableness is too often seen in company with sloth, with uselessness, with the vanity of fashionable life.

  William Ellery Channing

  Friends, Sloth, Natural

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• The French courage proceeds from vanity

  Lord Byron

  Bravery

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• There is no such flatterer as is a man's self.

  Francis Bacon

  Men, Self, Flatterer

  Francis Bacon (1873). “The Essays of Lord Bacon”, p.114

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• Such is the weakness of our nature, that when men are a little exalted in their condition they immediately conceive they have additional senses, and their capacities enlarged not only above other men, but above human comprehension itself.

  Richard Steele

  Men, Weakness, Littles

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele, Robert Bisset (1794). “The Spectator, with Illustrative Notes: To which are Prefixed, the Lives of Authors : Comprehending, Addison, Steele, Parnell, Hughes, Buegel, Eusden, Tickell, and Pope : with Critical Remarks about Their Writings”, p.335

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• Vanity makes people ridiculous, pride odious, and ambition terrible.

  Richard Steele

  Ambition, Pride, People

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• Ecclesiastes said that "all is vanity," Most modern preachers say the same, or show it By their examples of true Christianity: In short, all know, or very short may know it.

  Lord Byron

  May, Example, Christianity

  Lord Byron (1990). “The Sayings of Lord Byron”, p.22, Gerald Duckworth & Co

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• Vain-glorious men are the scorn of the wise, the admiration of fools, the idols of paradise, and the slaves of their own vaunts.

  Francis Bacon

  Wise, Men, Idols

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• I should have been, I don't know, a con-man, a robber or a prostitute. But it was vanity that made me choose painting, vanity and chance.

  Francis Bacon

  Men, Should Have, Chance

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• That was the source of my vanity and my cowardice: always I believed everyone was watching me.

  Andre Dubus

  Cowardice, Source

  Andre Dubus (2010). “Broken Vessels: Essays”, p.51, Open Road Media

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• My vanity and narcissism will never let me go too far.

  Jay Baruchel

  Narcissism, Never Let Me Go, Let Me Go

  Interview with Scott Tobias, film.avclub.com. March 10, 2010.

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• I really wanted to do some serious work. I really wanted to be a part of dramatic films. I wanted to show this talent, whatever that means, that I could be a dramatic actress as well. But the truth is, a) I don't know if I can, and b) I love doing comedy, and I felt almost a little embarrassed that I succumbed to the pressure. Vanity is really what it is. I feel really grateful that I am in comedy, and I love doing it.

  Anna Faris

  Grateful, Mean, Littles

  Interview with Scott Tobias, film.avclub.com. April 7, 2009.

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• I think if you try to look for something to show off as an actor, vanity can get the better of you.

  Steve Coogan

  Thinking, Trying, Looks

  "Steve Coogan Doesn't Believe in Fairies". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 25, 2013.

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• Anxieties about ourselves endure. If our proper study is indeed the study of humankind, then it has seemed-and still seems-to many that the study is dangerous. Perhaps we shall find out that we were not what we took ourselves to be. But if the historical development of science has indeed sometimes pricked our vanity, it has not plunged us into an abyss of immorality. Arguably, it has liberated us from misconceptions, and thereby aided us in our moral progress.

  Philip Kitcher

  Anxiety, Historical, Progress

  Philip Kitcher (1982). “Abusing Science: The Case Against Creationism”, p.202, MIT Press

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• The common people feel themselves oppressed by the grasping of some, and their vanity is flattered by others. Fired with evil passions, they are no longer willing to submit to control, but demand that everything be subject to their authority. The invariable result is that government assumes the noble names of free and popular, but becomes in fact the most execrable thing, mob rule.

  Polybius

  Passion, Names, Government

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• When a thing is bought not for its use but for its costliness, cheapness is no recommendation. As Sismondi remarks, the consequence of cheapening articles of vanity, is not that less is expended on such things, but that the buyers substitute for the cheapened article some other which is more costly, or a more elaborate quality of the same thing; and as the inferior quality answered the purpose of vanity equally well when it was equally expensive, a tax on the article is really paid by nobody: it is a creation of public revenue by which nobody loses.

  John Stuart Mill

  Quality, Purpose, Use

  John Stuart Mill (1862). “Principles of Political Economy, with Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy”, p.460

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• The much-vaunted sex appeal of American women is drawn from films, reviews and pin-ups, and is in large print fictitious. A recent medical survey in the United States showed that 75% of young American women are without strong sexual feeling and instead of satisfying their libido they seek pleasure narcissistically in exhibitionism, vanity, and the cult of fitness and health in a sterile sense.

  Julius Evola

  Strong, Sex, Feelings

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• When you eliminate vanity from an art form, and I would think that this would be any art form, what is left is an opportunity to be incredibly naked and truthful.

  Lorraine Toussaint

  Art, Opportunity, Thinking

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• But I feel vanity is a part of art and the non-vain are really non-artistic.

  Barry Webster

  Art, Vain, Feels

  Barry Webster (2005). “The Sound of All Flesh”, p.14, The Porcupine's Quill

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