Vanity Quotes - Page 37

• ... overconfidence in one's own ability is the root of much evil. Vanity, egoism, is the deadliest of all characteristics. This vanity, combined with extreme ignorance of conditions the knowledge of which is the very A B C of business and of life, produces more shipwrecks and heartaches than any other part of our mental make-up.

  Alice Foote MacDougall

  Business, Ignorance, Roots

  17 Copy quote

• So much of writing is fed by vanity and the feeling that what you are doing is the most important thing in the world and it has not been done before and only you can do it. Without these feelings, many writers would not be able to write anything at all.

  Pankaj Mishra

  Writing, Feelings, Important

  Source: www.believermag.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Honor is decency without vanity.

  Arthur Koestler

  Honor, Decency

  7 Copy quote

• Vanity is a motive of immense potency.

  Bertrand Russell

  Potency, Motive, Immense

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.448, Routledge

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• That little hypocrites and half-crazed people dare to imagine that on their account the laws of nature are constantly broken; such an enhancement of every kind of selfishness to infinity, to impudence, cannot be branded with sufficient contempt. And yet Christianity owes its triumph to this pitiable flattery of personal vanity.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Hypocrite, Law, People

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2012). “Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist”, p.120, Courier Corporation

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• So willing is every man to flatter himself, that the difference between approving laws, and obeying them, is frequently forgotten; he that acknowledges the obligations of morality and pleases his vanity with enforcing them to others, concludes himself zealous in the cause of virtue.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Law, Differences

  Samuel Johnson (1809). “The Rambler”, p.114

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Paper money is like dram-drinking, it relieves for a moment by deceitful sensation, but gradually diminishes the natural heat, and leaves the body worse than it found it. Were not this the case, and could money be made of paper at pleasure, every sovereign in Europe would be as rich as he pleased. But the truth is, that it is a bubble and the attempt vanity. Nature has provided the proper materials for money: gold and silver, and any attempt of ours to rival her is ridiculous.

  Thomas Paine

  Drinking, Europe, Gold

  Thomas Paine (1824). “The Political Writings of Thomas Paine: Secretary to the Committee of Foreign Affairs in the American Revolution : to which is Prefixed a Brief Sketch of the Author's Life”, p.410

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The deeper I go in considering the vanities of popular reasoning, the lighter and more foolish I find them. What greater stupidity can be imagined than that of calling jewels, silver, and gold "precious," and earth and soil "base"?

  Galileo Galilei

  Jewels, Stupidity, Gold

  Galileo Galilei (1967). “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican, Second Revised Edition”, p.59, Univ of California Press

  76 Copy quote

  Show source

• In my more pompous moments I like to think of myself as a writer rather than a humorist, but I suppose that's merely the vanity of advancing age.

  S. J. Perelman

  Thinking, Age, Moments

  4 Copy quote

• Curiosity is nothing more than vanity. More often than not we only seek knowledge to show it off.

  Blaise Pascal

  Curiosity, Shows

  "Pensées". Book by Blaise Pascal, 152, 1669.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• I cannot agree that mountain climbing is merely one manifestation of man's spiritual aspirations. I think instead it is a hysterical paroxysm of his infantile vanity.

  Rex Stout

  Spiritual, Men, Thinking

  Rex Stout (2010). “Triple Jeopardy”, p.76, Bantam

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Life, by which I mean my life, is a great, or probably the greatest, design, from its very beginning to its end, the end that, I think, is unlikely to exist. Each and every bit of life is a part of the design. Design exists as the consequence of the ultimate questioner's vanity. And my mission is to find the most fundamental truth, which probably and  exclusively involves the nature of the existence of the ultimate questioner.

  Kedar Joshi

  Mean, Thinking, Design

  4 Copy quote

• I can't think of one person who is on TV who isn't vain. It's the nature of the beast. If you are on TV then you have a vanity, for sure. Just admit it! Why not?

  Simon Cowell

  Thinking, Why Not, Tvs

  "YES I use Botox, NO I am not gay: Simon Cowell's frankest interview" by Jenny Johnston, www.dailymail.co.uk. November 17, 2007.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• God gave us laughter, I think, as a balm to wash the wounds of our own blunders, as a splint to mend the bones we break in our rashness or vanity.

  Mark Buchanan

  Laughter, Thinking, Bones

  Mark Buchanan (2009). “The Holy Wild: Trusting in the Character of God”, p.191, Multnomah

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you can change style, why stick to one style? Style is a vanity because it gives you product identification.

  Norman Mailer

  Giving, Style, Sticks

  4 Copy quote

• Vanity: my favorite sin.

  Al Pacino

  Sin, My Favorite

  160 Copy quote

• Now, that the sovereign power and deity, whatsoever it is, should have regard of mankind, is a toy and vanity worthy to be laughed at.

  Pliny the Elder

  Should Have, Sovereign, Toys

  Pliny (the Elder.) (1964). “The History of the World: Commonly Called The Natural History of C. Plinius Secundus, Or Pliny”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is a danger that threatens everyone in the church, all of us. The danger of worldliness. It leads us to vanity, arrogance and pride.

  Pope Francis

  Pride, Arrogance, Church

  "Pope Francis follows in namesake's footsteps and tells Church to focus on the poor" by Steve Doohan, www.mirror.co.uk. October 5, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Vanity is a silly thing to be obsessed with because... it sounds cliché but it leads you to emptiness; it goes away.

  Kristen Stewart

  Silly, Sound, Emptiness

  4 Copy quote

• Love is the miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives. I am not talking about vanity or arrogance . . . for that is not love. It is only fear. I am talking about having a great respect for ourselves and a gratitude for the miracle of our body and our mind.

  Louise Hay

  Gratitude, Love Is, Talking

  Louise L. Hay (1999). “You Can Heal Your Life Gift”, p.41, Hay House, Inc

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Europe is... a monument to the vanity of individuals, a programme whose inevitable destiny is failure.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Destiny, Europe, Individual

  4 Copy quote

• Vanity Fair magazine reports that former President Clinton and Al Gore haven't spoken to each other since George W. Bush's inauguration. Not only that, Bill and his wife, Hillary, haven't spoken since Richard Nixon's inauguration.

  Conan O'Brien

  Wife, President, Bills

  4 Copy quote

• No human pursuit achieves dignity unless it can be called work, and when you can experience a physical loneliness for the tools of your trade, you see that the other things - the experiments, the irrelevant vocations, the vanities you used to hold - were false to you.

  Beryl Markham

  Loneliness, Tools, Dignity

  7 Copy quote

• I think if I was not in love, I would probably let myself go faster. Love gives me the vanity to continue.

  Salma Hayek

  Thinking, Giving, Faster

  5 Copy quote

• I only want to keep moving up and up in terms of quality and be careful with perception. I don't just want to do things that are the pretty girl with lots of makeup, I want to get into the gritty stuff and get down and dirty and dark and really feed my soul and not my vanity.

  Nina Dobrev

  Girl, Moving, Dirty

  "Nina Dobrev’s New Chapter". Interview with Michael Peña, www.interviewmagazine.com. October 8, 2015.

  37 Copy quote

  Show source