Vanity Quotes - Page 17

• The real persuaders are our appetites, our fears and above all our vanity. The skillful propagandist stirs and coaches these internal persuaders.

  Eric Hoffer

  Fear, Real, Persuasion

  Eric Hoffer (1955). “The passionate state of mind, and other aphorisms”

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• To his sister-in-law: What a contrast between us! You live a warm and glowing life, surrounded by loved ones whom you care for and who care for you; you are anchored in contentment. I drift about without rudder or compass, a wreck on the sea of life; I have no memories to cheer me, no pleasant illusions of the future to comfort me, or about me to satisfy my vanity. I have no family to furnish the only kind of survival that concerns us, no friends for the wholesome development of my affections, or enemies for my malice.

  Alfred Nobel

  Sister, Cheer, Memories

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• O vanity, mislead no more!

  Louisa May Alcott

  Lying, Deceit, Mislead

  Louisa May Alcott (1871). “Morning-Glories, and Other Stories”, p.69

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• Some have lavish garments, carry sharp swords, and feast on food and drink. They possess more than they can spend. This is called the vanity of robbers. It is certainly not the Way.

  Laozi

  Taoism, Way, Drink

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• I believe firmly that it was the Almighty's goodness, to check my consummate vanity.

  Lord Mountbatten

  Believe, Goodness, Checks

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• Vanity is as old as the mammoth.

  W. L. George

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• I manage because I have to. Because I've no other way out. Because I've overcome the vanity and pride of being different, I've understood that they are a pitiful defense against being different. Because I've understood that the sun shines differently when something changes. The sun shines differently, but it will continue to shine, and jumping at it with a hoe isn't going to do anything.

  Andrzej Sapkowski

  Pride, Jumping, Hoe

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• I think it is every woman's duty to make herself as attractive as her time and means permit. After all, there you are, in your person- a living symbol of the progress of art, science and imagination. To be as attractive as we can be is almost a civic duty; there are so many sad and ugly things in the world that I think women should say to themselves humbly, not with vanity, 'I will try to be as pretty as I can, so that when people look at me, they will feel refreshed. I will make an effort to be easy on the eye.'

  Ilka Chase

  Art, Mean, Eye

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• 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

  War, Men, Greed

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

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• The purpose of writing is to hold a mirror to nature, but too much today is written from small mirrors in vanity cases.

  John Mason Brown

  Writing, Mirrors, Purpose

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• All religions, all this singing, one song. The differences are just illusion and vanity. The sun’s light looks a little different on this wall than it does on that wall, and a lot different on this other one, but it’s still one light.

  Rumi

  Song, Wall, Light

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• When we see the bankruptcy, slavery, and vanity of everything else, we can finally say, ‘To die is gain.’

  Matt Chandler

  Slavery, Gains, Bankruptcy

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• There is no law by which to determine the superiority of nations; hence the vanity of the claim, and the idleness of disputes about it. A people risen, run their race, and die either of themselves or at the hands of another, who, succeeding to their power, take possession of their place, and upon their monuments write new names; such is history.

  Lew Wallace

  Running, Writing, Race

  "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ".

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• Be neat, Philothea; let nothing be negligent about you. It is a kind of contempt of those with whom we converse, to frequent their company in uncomely apparel; but, at the same time, avoid all affectation, vanity, curiosity, or levity in your dress. Keep yourself always, as much as possible, on the side of plainness and modesty, which, without doubt, is the greatest ornament of beauty, and the best excuse for the want of it.

  Saint Francis de Sales

  Curiosity, Doubt, Want

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• Every man's occupation should be beneficial to his fellow-man as well as profitable to himself. All else is vanity and folly.

  P. T. Barnum

  Men, Fellow Man, Occupation

  P.T. BARNUM (1866). “THE HUMBUGS OF THE WORLD”, p.220

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• HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character.

  Randy Shilts

  Character, Cells, Ego

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• Hair brings one’s self-image into focus; it is vanity’s proving ground.  Hair is terribly personal, a tangle of mysterious prejudices

  Shana Alexander

  Hair, Self, Focus

  Shana Alexander (1970). “The feminine eye”, McCall Pub. Co

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• The leap is made by dropping vanity over knowledge and by a willingness to become nothing in order to become everything.

  Vernon Howard

  Life, Order, Dropping

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• Thus aged men, full loth and slow, The vanities of life forego, And count their youthful follies o'er, Till Memory lends her light no more.

  Walter Scott

  Life, Memories, Men

  Walter Scott, Sir Walter Scott (1841). “The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart”, p.324

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• It is a great mortification to the vanity of man, that his utmost art and industry can never equal the meanest of nature's productions, either for beauty or value. Art is only the under-workman, and is employed to give a few strokes of embellishment to those pieces, which come from the hand of the master.

  David Hume

  Art, Nature, Men

  David Hume (1825). “Essays and treatises on several subjects: essays, moral, political and literary”, p.131

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• My vanity is not remotely physical, it is cerebral. I suppose feeling self-conscious might be a form of vanity, though.

  Richard Griffiths

  Self, Feelings, Might

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• The ant's a centaur in his dragon world. Pull down thy vanity, it is not man Made courage, or made order, or made grace, Pull down thy vanity, I say pull down. Learn of the green world what can be thy place In scaled invention or true artistry, Pull down thy vanity, Paquin pull down! The green casque has outdone your elegance.

  Ezra Pound

  Courage, Learning, Men

  Cantos no. 81, l. 148 (1948)

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• There is a false modesty, which is vanity; a false glory, which is levity; a false grandeur, which is meanness; a false virtue, which is hypocrisy, and a false wisdom, which is prudery.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Hypocrisy, Modesty, Virtue

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• 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

  Use, Care, Riches

  Charles Simmons (1852). “Laconic Manual and Brief Remarker”, p.541

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• Although Poets are vain and ambitious, their vanity and ambition are of the purest kind attainable in this world. They are ambitious to be accepted for what they altimately are as revealed in their poetry.

  Stephen Spender

  Ambition, Ambitious, World

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