- “But how can anyone put a bridle on man’s vanity and arrogance? But how can Purity walk the earth without covering her feet with mud?” ― Nikos Kazantzakis, Saint Francis
- “I am philosophical Christ; crucified on the cross of ignorance for the sake ofdivine vanity.” ― Kedar Joshi
- “…most systems end up by making imagined humility into a form of vanity, so they end up with vanity just the same.” ― Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
- “O woman, father says natural is beautifulso why do you redden your cheeks and blacken your eyes?Why do you remove the hair on your legsand draw them into your brows?Why do you hold your breathlest your stomach showand hold your fartlest they knowthat you’re a human? O woman, father says natural is beautifulso why do you straighten your hairto curl it nextand pretend to orgasm so they think you enjoyed the sex?Why do you dumb yourself downand push your breasts up?Why do you smile when you’re told toand love when you don’t want to?When? When will you stop, woman? Father says natural is beautifulbut that is doubtfulfor what does father knowhe’s only a fellow.” ― Kamand Kojouri
- “Your body is a temple, not a daily dumping ground for another person’s pain, anger, betrayal, judgment, hypocrisy, denial, games, jealousy or blame. When you are being psychologically, spiritually or emotionally abused by a person, and they don’t care how it hurts you, then it is time to leave what is polluting your relationship with God.” ― Shannon L. Alder
- “What good is there in being blind, you ask? Well, maybe it’s to see the beauty on the inside without being vainly distracted, or superficially blinded, by the ugly on the outside.” ― Criss Jami, Killosophy
- “I am less to you than your ivory Hermes or your silver Faun. You will like them always. How long will you like me? Till I have my first wrinkle, I suppose. I know, now, that when one loses one’s good looks, whatever they may be, one loses everything. Your picture has taught me that. Lord Henry Wotton is perfectly right. Youth is the only thing worth having. When I find that I am growing old, I shall kill myself.” ― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
- “When conversing, some people regularly stop talking, not to listen, but to rest their tongues.” ― Mokokoma Mokhonoana
- “This is the sacred secret of love. Love a person for their heart and only their heart, and you will be rewarded with the best unconditional love in return. If you ignore the heart and focus just on a person’s outer beauty, love will ignore you. Love a person for only the beauty found in their heart, and that beautiful heart will always be beautiful to you.” ― Suzy Kassem
- “No matter how beautiful a house is, without a solid foundation, it is all in vain.” ― Gift Gugu Mona
- “I’m amazing and studly, but I have limits.” ― Jim Butcher, Grave Peril
- “I never met a woman that didn’t know if she was good-looking or not without being told, and some of them give themselves credit for more than they’ve got.” ― Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
- “Yesterday I was clever, so I took the glory for me. Today He makes me wise, so I give the glory to Thee” ― indonesia123
- “The only critic I listen to is the man in the mirror—so if you want to talk, meet me at my vanity.” ― Scott Feero, Dressing Stone: A Post-Postmodern Picaresque
- “Every men wanted to be his friend and every woman wanted to be in his bed” ― Dee Remy, There Once Was A Boy
- “Were you there?”She shook her head. “No. I was here in Nain having achild.”“Then why do you weep as though you had part in hiscrucifixion? You had no part in it.”“I’d like nothing better than to think I would haveremained faithful. But if those closest to him—hisdisciples, his own brothers—turned away, who am I tothink I’m better than they and would have donedifferently? No, Marcus. We all wanted what wewanted, and when the Lord fulfilled his purpose ratherthan ours, we struck out against him. Like you. In anger.Like you. In disappointment. Yet, it is God’s will thatprevails.”He looked away. “I don’t understand any of this.”“I know you don’t. I see it in your face, Marcus. Youdon’t want to see. You’ve hardened your heart againsthim.” She started to walk again.“As should all who value their lives,” he said, thinking ofHadassah’s death.“It is God who has driven you here.”He gave a derisive laugh. “I came here of my ownaccord and for my own purposes.”“Did you?” Marcus’ face became stony.Deborah pressed on. “We were all created incompleteand will find no rest until we satisfy the deepest hungerand thirst within us. You’ve tried to satisfy it in your ownway. I see that in your eyes, too, as I’ve seen it in somany others. And yet, though you deny it with your lastbreath, your soul yearns for God, Marcus LucianusValerian.”Her words angered him. “Gods aside, Rome showsthe world that life is what man makes of it.”“If that’s so, what are you making of yours?”“I own a fleet of ships, as well as emporiums andhouses. I have wealth.” Yet, even as he told her, heknew it all meant nothing. His father had come to thatrealization just before he died. Vanity. It was all vanity.Meaningless. Empty.Old Deborah paused on the pathway. “Rome points theway to wealth and pleasure, power and knowledge. ButRome remains hungry. Just as you are hungry now.Search all you will for retribution or meaning to your life,but until you find God, you live in vain.” ― Francine Rivers, An Echo in the Darkness
- “Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?” ― William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair
- “An ego always looks at his face in the mirror never in his eyes.” ― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words
- “Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind. But vanity, not love, has been my folly.” ― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
- “Only a demon would prevent a person from saving lives or fulfilling their life mission. There is no reasoning with the devil. Stand with pride because your heart is filled with the goodness of helping others, while theirs is filled with helping themselves.” ― Shannon L. Alder
- “Self-consciousness of the manner is the expensive substitute for simplicity.” ― George Eliot, Middlemarch
- “We’ve already had Malthus, the friend of humanity. But the friend of humanity with shaky moral principles is the devourer of humanity, to say nothing of his conceit; for, wound the vanity of any one of these numerous friends of humanity, and he’s ready to set fire to the world out of petty revenge—like all the rest of us, though, in that, to be fair; like myself, vilest of all, for I might well be the first to bring the fuel and run away myself.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot
- “You have a great deal of yourself on the line, writing— your vanity is at stake. You discover a tricky thing about fiction writing; a certain amount of vanity is necessary to be able to do it all, but any vanity above that certain amount is lethal.” ― David Foster Wallace, Both Flesh and Not: Essays
- “No one looks or feels attractive when angry.” ― Allan Lokos, Patience: The Art of Peaceful Living
- “Thanks to their egos, instead of simply saying that they do not know, some people sometimes try very hard to remember something they know they have never known.” ― Mokokoma Mokhonoana
- “Your whole being is like a home. Everyone is allowed to come at the door, only a few in living room, fewer still in bedroom. And then there is a secret room where nobody is allowed. Not even your own mind.We are so obsessed with others that we mostly live at the door (outer appearance) or in living room (job, relationship and travel that we do to fit with others).” ― Shunya
- “Let us not believe that an external fast from visible food alone can possibly be sufficient for perfection of heart and purity of body unless with it there has also been united a fast of the soul. For the soul also has its foods that are harmful. Slander is its food and indeed one that is very dear to it. A burst of anger also supplies it with miserable food for an hour and destroys it as well with its deadly savor. Envy is food of the mind, corrupting it with its poisonous juices and never ceasing to make it wretched and miserable at the prosperity and success of another. Vanity is its food which gratifies the mind with a delicious meal for a time but afterward strips it clear and bare of all virtue. Then vanity dismisses it barren and void of all spiritual fruit. All lust and shift wanderings of heart are a sort of food for the soul, nourishing it on harmful meats but leaving it afterwards without a share of its heavenly bread and really solid food. If then, with all the powers we have, we abstain from these in a most holy fast our observance of the bodily fast will be both useful and profitable.” ― John Cassian, Making Life a Prayer: Selected Writings
- “If only we studied the stars as much as we study our own reflections.” ― Kamand Kojouri
- “Nobody sees anybody truly but all through the flaws of their own egos. That is the way we all see …each other in life. Vanity, fear, desire, competition– all such distortions within our own egos– condition our vision of those in relation to us. Add to those distortions to our own egos the corresponding distortions in the egos of others, and you see how cloudy the glass must become through which we look at each other. That’s how it is in all living relationships except when there is that rare case of two people who love intensely enough to burn through all those layers of opacity and see each other’s naked hearts.” ― Tennessee Williams
- “It is extremely difficult not to fake or overdo something on which you have just been complimented.” ― Mokokoma Mokhonoana