By mortifying vanity we do ourselves no good. It is the want of interest in our life which produces it; by filling up that want of interest in our life we can alone remedy it.
Not curiosity, not vanity, not the consideration of expediency, not duty and conscientiousness, but an unquenchable, unhappy thirst that brooks no compromise leads us to truth.
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. ).
Any fear of aging, I think, is simply vanity.
Vanity, or to call it by a gentler name, the desire of admiration and applause, is, perhaps, the most universal principle of humanactions. . . . Where that desire is wanting, we are apt to be indifferent, listless, indolent, and inert. . . . I will own to you, under the secrecy of confession, that my vanity has very often made me take great pains to make many a woman in love with me, if I could, for whose person I would not have given a pinch of snuff.
When we hear complaints of the wretchedness or vanity of human life, the proper answer to them would be that there is hardly any one who at some point or other has not been in love. If we consider the high abstraction of this feeling, its depth, its purity, its voluptuous refinement, even in the meanest breast, how sacred and how sweet it is, this alone may reconcile us to the lot of humanity. That drop of balm turns the bitter cup to a delicious nectar.
But I feel vanity is a part of art and the non-vain are really non-artistic.
Stupidity, outrage, vanity, cruelty, iniquity, bad faith, falsehood - we fail to see the whole array when it is facing in the same direction as we.
Vanity may be likened to the smooth-skinned and velvet-footed mouse, nibbling about forever in expectation of a crumb; while self-esteem is too apt to take the likeness of the huge butcher's dog, who carries off your steaks, and growls at you as be goes.
Imperfections would not be half so much taken notice of, if vanity did not make proclamation of them.
Nothing makes one so vain as being told that one is a sinner.
It is easy to pity when once one's vanity has been tickled.
The truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance.
Vanity can create a very cruel space for you if you don't know how to manage it.
I have always found that Angels have the vanity to speak of themselves as the only wise.
True power and true politeness are above vanity.
Vanity is but the surface.
Just as bones, tissues, intestines, and blood vessels are enclosed in a skin that makes it possible to bear the sight of a human being, so the agitations and passions of the soul are wrapped up in vanity: it is the soul's skin.
A man must have a good deal of vanity who believes, and a good deal of boldness who affirms, that all the doctrines he holds are true, and all he rejects are false.
The common practice of keeping up appearances with society is a mere selfish struggle of the vain with the vain.