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I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and,
behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Author: Bible
Source: Ecclesiastes (ch. I, v. 14)
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Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all
is vanity.
Author: Bible
Source: Ecclesiastes (ch. I, v. 2)
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Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a
lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than
vanity.
Author: Bible
Source: Psalms (ch. LXII, v. 9)
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Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is
as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is
altogether vanity. Selah.
Author: Bible
Source: Psalms (ch. XXXIX, v. 5)
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It beareth the name of Vanity Fair, because the town where it is
kept is "lighter than vanity."
Author: John Bunyan
Source: Pilgrim's Progress (pt. I)
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Oh, wad some power the giftie gie us
To see oursel's as ithers see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
And foolish notion.
Author: Robert Burns
Source: To a Louse
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Ecclesiastes said that "all is vanity,"
Most modern preachers say the same, or show it
By their examples of true Christianity:
In short, all know, or very short may know it.
Author: Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron)
Source: Don Juan (canto VII, st. 6)
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Vanity, like murder, will out.
Author: Hannah Parkhouse Cowley
Source: The Belle's Stratagem (act I, sc. 4)
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Sooth'd with the sound, the king grew vain:
Fought all his battles o'er again;
And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew the slain.
Author: John Dryden
Source: Alexander's Feast (l. 66)
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Vanity is as ill as ease under indifference as tenderness is
under a love which it cannot return.
Author: George Eliot (pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans Cross)
Source: Daniel Deronda (bk. I, ch. X)
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How many saucy airs we meet,
From Temple Bar to Aldgate street!
Author: John Gay
Source: The Barley-Mow and Dunghill (l. 1)
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Vain? Let it be so! Nature was her teacher,
What if a lovely and unsistered creature
Loved her own harmless gift of pleasing feature.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.,
Author: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Source: Iris, Her Book--The Professor at the Breakfast-Table (X)
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We say little if not egged on by vanity.
[Fr., On parle peu quand la vanite ne fait pas parler.]
Author: Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Source: Maximes (137)
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That which makes the vanity of others unbearable to us is that
which wounds our own.
[Fr., Ce qui nous rend la vanite des autres insupportable, c'est
qu'elle blesse la notre.]
Author: Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Source: Maximes (389)
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"Vanitas vanitatum" has rung in the ears
Of gentle and simple for thousands of years;
The wail still is heard, yet its notes never scare
Either simple or gentle from Vanity Fair.
Author: Frederick Locker-Lampson
Source: Vanity Fair
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What is your sex's earliest, latest care,
Your heart's supreme ambition? To be fair.
Author: Lord George Lyttleton
Source: Advice to a Lady (l. 17)
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And not a vanity is given in vain.
Author: Alexander Pope
Source: Essay on Man (ep. II, l. 290)
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Here files of pins extend their shining rows,
Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billet-doux.
Author: Alexander Pope
Source: Rape of the Lock (canto I, l. 137)
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Hoy-day!
What a sweep of vanity comes this way!
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Life of Timon of Athens (Apemantus at I, ii)
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Methinks I am a prophet new inspired
And thus, expiring, do foretell of him:
His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last,
For violent fires soon burn out themselves;
Small show'rs last long, but sudden storms are short;
He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes;
With eager feeding doth choke the feeder;
Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,
Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Tragedy of King Richard the Second (Gaunt at II, i)
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Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity
(So it be new, there's no respect how vile)
That is not quickly buzzed into his ears?
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Tragedy of King Richard the Second (York at II, i)
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There are grades of vanity, there are only grades of ability in
concealing it.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Tragedy of King Richard the Second (York at II, i)
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It is difficult to esteem a man as highly as he would wish.
[Fr., Il est difficile d'estimer quelqu'un comme il veut l'etre.]
Author: Luc de Clapier de Vauvanargues
Source: Reflexions (LXVII)
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Maud Muller looked and sighed: :Ah me!
That I the Judge's bride might be!
He would dress me up in silks so fine,
And praise and toast me at his wine."
Author: John Greenleaf Whittier
Source: Maud Miller (l. 35)
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Meek Nature's evening comment on the shows
That for oblivion that their daily birth
From all the fuming vanities of earth.
Author: William Wordsworth
Source: Sonnet--Sky--Prospect from the Plain of France
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In the stress of modern life, how little room is left for that most comfortable vanity that whispers in our ears that failures are not fault!
Author: Agnes Repplier
Source: None
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To act from pure benevolence is not possible for finite beings. Human benevolence is mingled with vanity, interest, or some other motive.
Author: James Boswell
Source: None
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Vanity is so secure in the heart of man that everyone wants to be admired: even I who write this, and you who read this.
Author: Blaise Pascal
Source: None
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The common practice of keeping up appearances with society is a mere selfish struggle of the vain with the vain.
Author: John Ruskin
Source: None
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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.
Author: Brenda Ueland
Source: None
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It must require an inordinate share of vanity and presumption, too, after enjoying so much that is good and beautiful on earth, to ask the Lord for immortality in addition to all.
Author: Heinrich Heine
Source: None
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Cure yourself of the affliction of caring how you appear to others. Concern yourself only with how you appear before God, Concern yourself only with the idea that God may have of you.
Author: Miguel De Unamuno
Source: None
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Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people.
Author: Garrison Keillor
Source: None
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Self-love seems so often unrequited.
Author: Anthony Powell
Source: None
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My father said, "Politics asks the question: Is it expedient? Vanity asks: Is it popular? But conscience asks: Is it right?"
Author: Dexter Scott King
Source: None
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Magnanimous people have no vanity, they have no jealousy, and they feed on the true and the solid wherever they find it. And, what is more, they find it everywhere.
Author: Van Wyck Brooks
Source: None
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We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all.
Author: François Duc de La Rochefoucauld
Source: None
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The only cure for vanity is laughter, and the only fault that's laughable is vanity.
Author: Henri Bergson
Source: None
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One will rarely err if extreme actions be ascribed to vanity, ordinary actions to habit, and mean actions to fear.
Author: Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Source: None
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Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.
Author: François Duc de La Rochefoucauld
Source: None
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If a person is to get the meaning of life he must learn to like the facts about himself -- ugly as they may seem to his sentimental vanity -- before he can learn the truth behind the facts. And the truth is never ugly.
Author: Eugene O'Neill
Source: None
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Never "just run out for a few minutes" without looking your best. This is not vanity -- it's self-liking. Your face is always on display.
Author: Estee Lauder
Source: None
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I think I may boast myself to be, with all possible vanity, the most unlearned and uninformed female who ever dared to be an authoress.
Author: Jane Austen
Source: None
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When you're 50 you start thinking about things you haven't thought about before. I used to think getting old was about vanity- but actually it's about losing people you love. Getting wrinkles is trivial.
Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Source: None
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No man thinks there is much ado about nothing when the ado is about himself.
Author: Anthony Trollope
Source: None
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Vanity is as ill at ease under indifference as tenderness is under a love which it cannot return.
Author: George Eliot
Source: None
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There is nothing so agonizing to the fine skin of vanity as the application of a rough truth.
Author: Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
Source: None
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To say that a man is vain means merely that he is pleased with the effect he produces on other people. A conceited man is satisfied with the effect he produces on himself.
Author: Max Beerbohm
Source: None
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If there is a single quality that is shared by all great men, it is vanity. But I mean by "vanity" only that they appreciate their own worth. Without this kind of vanity they would not be great. And with vanity alone, of course, a man is nothing.
Author: Yousef Karsh
Source: None
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Vanity plays lurid tricks with our memory.
Author: Joseph Conrad
Source: None
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