Vanity Quotes:

I have been merely oppressed by the weariness and tedium and vanity of things lately: nothing stirs me, nothing seems worth doing or worth having done: the only thing that I strongly feel worth while would be to murder as many people as possible so as to diminish the amount of consciousness in the world. These times have to be lived through: there is nothing to be done with them.

topic: Vanity, Wish, Trouble

What vanity needs for its satisfaction is glory, and it's easy to have glory without power.

topic: Vanity, People, Would Be, Tedium

Power, like vanity, is insatiable. Nothing short of omnipotence could satisfy it completely.

topic: Vanity, Needs, Satisfaction

Curiosity is only vanity. We usually only want to know something so that we can talk about it.

topic: Power, Vanity, Omnipotence, Insatiable

We are so presumptuous that we should like to be known all over the world, even by people who will only come when we are no more. Such is our vanity that the good opinion of half a dozen of the people around us gives us pleasure and satisfaction.

topic: Pride, Vanity, Curiosity

Curiosity is only vanity. Most frequently we wish not to know, but to talk. We would not take a sea voyage for the sole pleasure of seeing without hope of ever telling.

topic: Vanity, People, Giving

[On vanity:] The nose of Cleopatra: if it had been shorter, the face of the earth would have changed.

topic: Vanity, Sea, Curiosity, Sea Voyage

We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our being; we desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others, and for this purpose we endeavor to shine. We labor unceasingly to adorn and preserve this imaginary existence and neglect the real.

topic: Beauty, Vanity, Noses

We need not have the loftiest mind to understand that here is no lasting and real satisfaction, that our pleasures are only vanity, that our evils are infinite, and, lastly, that death, which threatens us every moment, must infallibly place us within a few years under the dreadful necessity of being forever either annihilated or unhappy.

topic: Real, Vanity, Hypocrisy, Imaginary Life

We are so presumptuous that we wish to be known to all the world, even to those who come after us; and we are so vain that the esteem of five or six persons immediately around us is enough to amuse and satisfy us.

topic: Death, Real, Vanity

The consciousness of the falsity of present pleasures, and the ignorance of the vanity of absent pleasures, cause inconstancy.

topic: Vanity, Wish, World

God got the power, man has got his vanity. Man gotta choose before God can set him free.

topic: Ignorance, Vanity, Causes, Falsity, Inconstancy

- Bob Dylan

topic: Religious, Men, Vanity, Power Man

Know that it is good to work. Work with love, and think of liking it when you do it. It is easy and interesting. It is a privilege. There is nothing hard about it but your anxious vanity and fear of failure.

- Brenda Ueland

topic: Passion, Thinking, Vanity

I'm not invited to the Vanity Fair dinner where they watch the Oscars - or even the Oscars themselves - so I sit at home and watch it with a bunch of close friends.

- Brett Ratner

topic: Home, Vanity, Watches, Vanity Fair

To write well and speak well is mere vanity if one does not live well.

- Bridget of Sweden

topic: Writing, Vanity, Doe

Let us think often that our only business in this life is to please God. Perhaps all besides is but folly and vanity.

- Brother Lawrence

topic: Thinking, Vanity, Life Is

From time to time, just about every Vanity Fair writer has a chance to sell rights to an article or a book to Hollywood.

- Bryan Burrough

topic: Book, Vanity, Rights, Vanity Fair

[The political mind] is a strange mixture of vanity and timidity, of an obsequious attitude at one time and a delusion of grandeurat another time. The political mind is the product of men in public life who have been twice spoiled. They have been spoiled with praise and they have been spoiled with abuse.

- Calvin Coolidge

topic: Attitude, Men, Vanity

Atrocities are now shown in 30-second bites. Hardcore artistic horror is an expression of hating your neighbour. The gruesome imagination feeds on vanity, lust, self-indulgence and despair, rather than the hope of the Holy Spirit. The Body of Christ needs to look and repent of our own fallenness.... Whatever arena Christians withdraw from goes to hell.

- Calvin Seerveld

topic: Christian, Hate, Vanity, Body Of Christ

Men have had the vanity to pretend that the whole creation was made for them, while in reality the whole creation does not suspect their existence.

- Camille Flammarion

source: Camille Flammarion (1871). “The Wonders of the Heavens”, p.195

topic: Reality, Men, Vanity

Of what use are the great number of petrifactions, of different species, shape and form which are dug up by naturalists? Perhaps the collection of such specimens is sheer vanity and inquisitiveness. I do not presume to say; but we find in our mountains the rarest animals, shells, mussels, and corals embalmed in stone, as it were, living specimens of which are now being sought in vain throughout Europe. These stones alone whisper in the midst of general silence.

- Carl Linnaeus

topic: Animal, Vanity, Europe

Ladies of Fashion starve their happiness to feed their vanity, and their love to feed their pride.

- Charles Caleb Colton

source: Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.454

topic: Fashion, Pride, Vanity, Vanity And Pride

Bonfire of the Vanities: The lesson of that book is, never start believing your own press.

- Charles James

topic: Believe, Book, Vanity, Bonfire

Those who obtain riches by labor, care, and watching, know their value. Those who impart them to sustain and extend knowledge, virtue, and religion, know their use. Those who lose them by accident or fraud know their vanity. And those who experience the difficulties and dangers of preserving them know their perplexities.

- Charles Simmons

topic: Vanity, Use, Care, Impart

What is called liberality is often no more than the vanity of giving, of which some persons are fonder than of what they give.

- Charlotte Lennox

source: Charlotte Lennox (1762). “Sophia”, p.112

topic: Vanity, Generosity, Giving, Liberality

I am simply not such a slave to my vanity, and I don't want to be, because as you get older you really have to start accepting the inevitable.

- Cherie Lunghi

topic: Vanity, Want, Slave

I work out because that's my job, but what I enjoy about it, beyond the vanity, is the Zen of it. I like getting out of my head, and one great way to do that is to sweat your face off. And to know that, if you're thinking of anything else, you're not working intensely enough.

- Chris Pine

topic: Jobs, Thinking, Vanity

Vanity in an old man is charming. It is a proof of an open, nature. Eighty winters have not frozen him up, or taught him concealments. In a young person it is simply allowable; we do not expect him to be above it.

- Christian Nestell Bovee

topic: Winter, Men, Vanity, Concealment

She gave up beauty in her tender youth, gave all her hope and joy and pleasant ways; she covered up her eyes lest they should gaze on vanity, and chose the bitter truth.

- Christina Rossetti

topic: Beauty, Eye, Vanity, Bitter Truth, Covered Up

It's always our touches of vanity that manage to betray us.

- Christopher Fry

topic: Vanity, Betray, Manage

Lois and Alexander are by far the most beautiful creatures in the class; their beauty is like the beauty of plants, seemingly untroubled by vanity, anxiety or effort.

- Christopher Isherwood

topic: Beautiful, Vanity, Class, Beautiful Creatures

If I ever had any vanity, then I definitely lost it by being on television. It doesn't do you any favours in terms of showing you what you look like and what your emotions are.

- Clive Anderson

topic: Vanity, Looks, Television

If I ever had any vanity, then I definitely lost it by being on television.

- Clive Anderson

topic: Vanity, Television, Lost

When we are conscious of the least comparative merit in ourselves, we should take as much care to conceal the value we set upon it, as if it were a real defect; to be elated or vain upon it is showing your money before people in want.

- Colley Cibber

source: Colley Cibber (1830). “An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber, Comedian”, p.27

topic: Real, Vanity, People

Every sinew in my body came together in one perfect whole. But those who have ever experienced that feeling, and it doesn't happen very often, will tell you it's in a whole other place of experience from the usual ego or vanity that drives my game. So I'm not afraid to own it for what it was.

- Cooper Cronk

topic: Vanity, Games, League, Rugby League

The woman is the man's glory, and she naturally delights in the praises which are assurances that she is fulfilling her function; and she gives herself to him who succeeds in convincing her that she, of all others, is best able to discharge it for him. A woman without this kind of "vanity" is a monster.

- Coventry Patmore

source: Coventry Patmore (2016). “The Rod, the Root and the Flower”, p.20, Lulu.com

topic: Women, Vanity, Giving, Discharge

Without "The Law of Moses" would we all be wandering around like little gods, stealing, raping, and spilling blood whenever our vanity was offended?

- Dan Barker

topic: Vanity, Blood, Law, Spilling

You can't control how you are perceived, and you are a fool if you waste any energy trying to do so. Vanity will get you nowhere.

- Dave Schulthise

topic: Stupid, Vanity, Trying

Speech writers are more vulnerable to vanity than any other group of people in Washington.

- David Frum

topic: Vanity, People, Groups

In their vanity men focus on what they wish to hear and miss the hidden meaning, the lurking threat.

- David Hewson

topic: Men, Vanity, Focus, Lurking, Hidden Meaning

I left Gorbachev's office thinking that everything about him was outsized: his achievements, his mistakes, and, now, his vanity and bitterness.

- David Remnick

topic: Mistake, Thinking, Vanity, Gorbachev

The basis of tragedy is man's helplessness against disease, war and death; the basis of comedy is man's helplessness against vanity (the vanity of love, greed, lust, power).

- Dawn Powell

source: Dawn Powell (1998). “The Diaries of Dawn Powell: 1931-1965”, Zoland Books

topic: War, Men, Vanity, War And Death, Helplessness

Sure I'm cut but not for the sake of vanity...

- Dean Karnazes

topic: Cutting, Vanity, Sake

Beyond all vanities, fights, and desires, omnipotent silence lies.

- Dejan Stojanovic

topic: Lying, Fighting, Vanity

Vanity is a weakness. I know this. It's a shallow dependence on the exterior self, on how one looks instead of what one is. I know this well...Vanity and dishonesty may be vices, but they're also the first forms of protection I ever knew.

- Dennis Lehane

topic: Vanity, Self, Weakness

My father said, Politics asks the question: Is it expedient? Vanity asks: Is it popular? But conscience asks: Is it right?

- Dexter Scott King

topic: Father, Vanity, Said

I loathe narcissism, but I approve of vanity.

- Diana Vreeland

topic: Fashion, Vanity, Narcissism, Loathe, Fashionista

Let him who cannot be alone beware of community... Let him who is not in community beware of being alone... Each by itself has profound perils and pitfalls. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and the one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation and despair.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

topic: Vanity, Self, Profound, Christian Community

It is much easier for me to imagine a praying murderer, a praying prostitute, than a vain person praying. Nothing is so at odds with prayer as vanity.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

topic: Prayer, Vanity, Odds

Nothing is so at odds with prayer as vanity.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

topic: Prayer, Vanity, Odds

I went to Cal Arts and AFI, and I worked on 'Bonfire Of The Vanities.' I got this grant from the Academy to be Brian De Palma's apprentice director. And it was such a harrowing, disillusioning, awful experience.

- Douglas Rushkoff

topic: Art, Vanity, Directors

For our vanity is such that we hold our own characters immutable, and we are slow to acknowledge that they have changed, even for the better.

- E. M. Forster

topic: Character, Vanity, Changed

The smallest amount of vanity is fatal in aeroplane fighting. Selfdistrust rather is the quality to which many a pilot owes his protracted existence.

- Eddie Rickenbacker

topic: Fighting, Vanity, Quality, Military Aviation, Being Spoiled

No insect hangs its nest on threads as frail as those which will sustain the weight of human vanity.

- Edith Wharton

topic: Vanity, Weight, Nests

It is less mortifying to believe one's self unpopular than insignificant, and vanity prefers to assume that indifference is a latent form of unfriendliness.

- Edith Wharton

topic: Believe, Vanity, Self

Irresponsibility, cowardice, personal vanity, whining and chaos are becoming the maxims of political action. There is a stink in Berlin - a huge one!

- Edmund Stoiber

topic: Vanity, Political, Berlin, Political Action

Vanity, indeed, is the very antidote to conceit; for while the former makes us all nerve to the opinion of others, the latter is perfectly satisfied with its opinion of itself.

- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

topic: Vanity, Nerves, Opinion

The manly pride of the Romans, content with substantial power, had left to the vanity of the East the forms and ceremonies of ostentatious greatness. But when they lost even the semblance of those virtues which were derived from their ancient freedom, the simplicity of Roman manners was insensibly corrupted by the stately affectation of the courts of Asia.

- Edward Gibbon

topic: Pride, Greatness, Vanity, Ostentatious, Semblance

What egotism, what stupid vanity, to suppose that a thing could not happen because you could not conceive it!

- Edwin Balmer

source: Philip Wylie, Edwin Balmer (2016). “When Worlds Collide”, p.47, Macmillan

topic: Stupid, Vanity, Statistics

The world is so rife with narcissists that none of them take enough notice of me.

- Eleanor Bron

topic: Vanity, World, Narcissist

There's nothing like getting yourself into character and seeing a different person. It really wears on your vanity.

- Elisabeth Moss

source: "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

topic: Character, Vanity, Different

those Women who boast the Affections of their Admirers, have a greater share of Vanity than Love ...

- Eliza Haywood

source: Eliza Haywood (2004). “Fantomina and Other Works”, p.198, Broadview Press

topic: Vanity, Affection, Admirer

Vanity is a vital aid to nature: completely and absolutely necessary to life. It is one of nature's ways to bind you to the earth.

- Elizabeth Smart

source: Elizabeth Smart, Alice Van Wart (1991). “Necessary secrets: the journals of Elizabeth Smart”, Grafton Books

topic: Vanity, Earth, Way

It's not vanity to feel you have a right to be beautiful. Women are taught to feel we're not good enough, that we must live up to someone else's standards. But my aim is to cherish myself as I am.

- Elle Macpherson

topic: Beautiful, Fashion, Vanity

... without health to enjoy love, and love to enjoy wealth, is not all vanity?

- Ellen Buckingham Mathews

topic: Vanity, And Love, Wealth

Tilling the fertile soil of man's vanity.

- Ellen Glasgow

topic: Men, Vanity, Soil, Fertile, Fertile Soil

Vanity should never tempt a player to engage in a combat at the risk of loss of health. It is bad enough to lose without the additional annoyance of paying doctors' bills.

- Emanuel Lasker

topic: Loss, Player, Vanity

He who wants to educate himself in Chess must evade what is dead in Chess...the habit of playing with inferior opponents; the custom of avoiding difficult tasks; the weakness of uncritically taking over variations or rules discovered by others; the vanity which is self-sufficient; the incapacity for admitting mistakes; in brief, everything that leas to standstill or to anarchy.

- Emanuel Lasker

source: "Lasker's Manual of Chess". Book by Emanuel Lasker, Published in New York: Dover, p. 338, 1960.

topic: Mistake, Vanity, Self, Standstill

To boast of a performance which I cannot beat is merely stupid vanity. And if I can beat it that means there is nothing special about it. What has passed is already finished with. What I find more interesting is what is still to come.

- Emil Zatopek

topic: Stupid, Mean, Vanity

I try--without success--to stop finding reasons for vanity in anything. When I happen to manage it nonetheless, I feel that I no longer belong to the mortal gang. I am above everything then, above the gods themselves. Perhaps that is what death is: a sensation of great, of extreme superiority.

- Emile M. Cioran

topic: Vanity, Trying, Gang

Doing press is like eating at McDonald's: while it's going on it's vaguely enjoyable - you're seduced by your own vanity and taking yourself rather seriously - but immediately afterwards you feel sick.

- Emily Mortimer

topic: Vanity, Mcdonalds, Sick

Naivete in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity.

There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.

topic: Ignorance, Vanity, Stupidity, Stupidity And Ignorance, Grownups

The burning conviction that we have a holy duty towards others is often a way of attaching our drowning selves to a passing raft. What looks like a giving hand is often a holding on for dear life. Take away our holy duties and you leave our lives puny and meaningless. There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.

topic: Self Esteem, Humility, Vanity

The hardest thing to cope with is not selfishness or vanity or deceitfulness, but sheer stupidity.

topic: Self Esteem, Humility, Vanity