Quotes and Sayings About Vanity
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If we mean to have Heroes, Statesmen and Philosophers, we should have learned women. The world perhaps would laugh at me, and accuse me of vanity, but you I know have a mind too enlarged and liberal to disregard the Sentiment. If much depends as is allowed upon the early Education of youth and the first principals which are instill'd take the deepest root, great benefit must arise from literary accomplishments in women.
-- Abigail AdamsSource : Abigail Adams, John Adams, L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Mary-Jo Kline (1975). “The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784”, p.153, UPNE
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My father loved biographies. He loved the true tales of interesting people that were shaping our culture. I get why he dug Vanity Fair. You feel smarter, somehow, for reading it.
-- Abigail SpencerSource : Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.
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Solitude can be used well by very few people. They who do must have a knowledge of the world to see the foolishness of it, and enough virtue to despise all the vanity.
-- Abraham Cowley -
Mundus vult decipi'—the world wants to be deceived. To live without deception presupposes standards beyond the reach of most people whose existence is largely shaped by compromise, evasion and mutual accommodation. Could they face their weakness, their vanity and selfishness, without a mask?
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel -
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Yesterday misspent can't be recall'd Vanity makes beauty contemptible Wisdom is more valuable than riches.
-- Abraham Verghese -
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 -
Our dogs will love and admire the meanest of us, and feed our colossal vanity with their uncritical homage.
-- Agnes RepplierSource : Agnes Repplier (1924). “Under dispute”
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Of course, true love is exceptional - two or three times a century, more or less. The rest of the time there is vanity or boredom.
-- Albert Camus -
Our civilization survives in the complacency of cowardly or malignant minds -- a sacrifice to the vanity of aging adolescents
-- Albert Camus -
The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with joy are goodness, beauty, and truth.
-- Albert Einstein -
There are many reasons for keeping a diary: to make a note of facts that one considers important; to open one's heart, to give vent to one's feelings, to make confessions; from the instinct of economy which sometimes encourages a writer to make good use of even the smallest crumbs of his life, so that he may have one more book to publish; or again from vanity and self- satisfaction.
-- Alberto Moravia -
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Our vanity makes us exaggerate the importance of human life; the individual is nothing; Nature cares only for the species.
-- Aldous Huxley -
I have always found that Angels have the vanity to speak of themselves as the only wise.
-- Aldous Huxley -
An Actor is an interpreter of other men's words, often a soul which wishes to reveal itself to the world but dare not, a craftsman, a bag of tricks, a vanity bag, a cool observer of mankind, a child and at his best a kind of unfrocked priest who, for an hour or two, can call on heaven and hell to mesmerize a group of innocents...
-- Alec GuinnessSource : Alec Guinness (1986). “Blessings in Disguise”, New York : Knopf
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The vanity of human life is like a river, constantly passing away, and yet constantly coming on.
-- Alexander Pope -
Every man has just as much vanity as he wants understanding.
-- Alexander Pope -
Vanity in its idler moments is benevolent, is as willing to give pleasure as to take it, and accepts as sufficient reward for its services a kind word or an approving smile.
-- Alexander Smith -
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The expression of vanity and self-love becomes less offensive, when it retains something of simplicity and frankness.
-- Alexander von HumboldtSource : Alexander von Humboldt, Aimè Bonpland (1852). “Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Years 1799-1804”, p.415
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Be good, be young, be true! Evil is nothing but vanity, let us have the pride of good, and above all let us never despair.
-- Alexandre Dumas-filsSource : Alexandre Dumas fils (2004). “Camille”, p.24, Penguin
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Fruits are always of the same nature with the seeds and roots from which they come, and trees are known by the fruits they bear: as a man begets a man, and a beast a beast, that society of men which constitutes a government upon the foundation of justice, virtue, and the common good, will always have men to promote those ends; and that which intends the advancement of one man's desire and vanity, will abound in those that will foment them.
-- Algernon SidneySource : Algernon Sidney (1794). “Life, Memoirs,&c. of Algernon Sydney”, p.112
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Today, America poses a threat to peace and security in the world. Therefore, the slogan "Death to America" is no longer used only by our people. Today, you see throughout the world people setting fire to the effigy of the American president and chanting the slogan "Death to America." This is because of the American regime's exaggerated demands, its arrogance, its vanity, and its desire to control, and because it is a pawn in the hands of the Zionists.
-- Ali KhameneiSource : "The 25 Issues that Shape American Politics: Debates, Differences, and Divisions". Book by Michael Kryzanek and Ann K. Karreth, 2017.
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How heroic to be able to suppress one's vanity to the extent of confessing that the game is too hard.
-- Alice JamesSource : 1889 On suicide. Diary entry, 5 Aug.
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Those who live on vanity must, not unreasonably, expect to die of mortification.
-- Alice Thomas Ellis -
They say that hens do cackle loudest when there is nothing vital in the eggs they have laid.
-- Ambrose Bierce -
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When you have a lot of success you don't need vanity any more.
-- Amelie Nothomb -
I should have more vanity.
-- Amy BrennemanSource : "Amy Brenneman: Private Practice Season Finale Is Like a 'Quentin Tarantino Movie'". Interview with Matt Mitovich, www.tvguide.com. April 30, 2009.