quotations about vanity
Vanity dies hard; in some obstinate cases it outlives the man.
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
The Wrecker
Every present occasion will catch the senses of the vain main; and with that bridle and saddle you may ride him.
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY
Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney
Every man has just as much vanity as he wants understanding.
ALEXANDER POPE
"Thoughts on Various Subjects"
The vanity of others is only counter to our taste when it is counter to our vanity.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Beyond Good and Evil
Vanity is apt to inspire contempt, but that becomes immediately tempered by a gentler and more gracious feeling; for the vain man desires to win our approbation, and in this way he flatters us.
ARTHUR LYNCH
Moods of Life
Vanity is often so excessive, that those who are compelled to walk on crutches would fain make us believe they are raised on stilts.
ELIZA COOK
Diamond Dust
To feel vanity on account of anything, is proving that we are not accustomed to it.
PIERRE CLAUDE VICTOIRE BOISTE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Vanity is a confounded donkey, very apt to put his head between his legs and chuck us over.
FREDERICK MARRYAT
attributed, Day's Collacon
There is more jealousy between rival wits, than rival beauties, for vanity has no sex.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
False modesty is the last refinement of vanity.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Vanity is only to be satisfied by gold in floods.
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
Gobseck
That was the source of my vanity and my cowardice: always I believed everyone was watching me.
ANDRE DUBUS
"The Judge and Other Snakes", Broken Vessels
Everywhere you find the man of thews and sinews who toils, and the lymphatic man who torments himself; and pleasures are everywhere the same, for when all sensations are exhausted, all that survives is Vanity--Vanity is the abiding substance of us, the I in us.
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
Physiology of Marriage
In their vanity men focus on what they wish to hear and miss the hidden meaning, the lurking threat.
DAVID HEWSON
Macbeth: A Novel
V is for vanity, every time I look at me
I turn myself on, yeah
CHRISTINA AGUILERA
"Vanity"
A man that is deeply in love with himself will probably succeed in his suit owing to a lack of rivals.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
Everyone at the bottom of his heart cherishes vanity; even the toad thinks himself good-looking; "rather tawny perhaps, but look at his eye!"
J. WILSON
attributed, Day's Collacon
In the age of Instagram, when every famous face is potentially subject to an iPhone ambush, extreme vanity is more necessity than sin.
GUY TREBAY
"Dermatologist to the famous: The doctor will see you now (if you're a star with a zit)", Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette, April 30, 2017
Everyone has his vanity, and each one's vanity is his forgetting that there are others with an equal soul.
FERNANDO PESSOA
The Book of Disquiet
There's just something unsettling about studying your reflection. It's not a matter of being dissatisfied with your face or of being embarrassed by your vanity. Maybe it's that when you gaze into your own eyes, you don't see what you wish to see--or glimpse something that you wish weren't there.
DEAN KOONTZ
Deeply Odd