- “We think we are being interesting to others when we are being interesting to ourselves.” ― Jack Gardner, Words Are Not Things
- “Or, rather, let us be more simple and less vain.” ― Rousseau Jean-Jacques
- “A woman who holds her head up too high, is trying to breathe from her own pollution.” ― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
- “No one looks or feels attractive when angry.” ― Allan Lokos, Patience: The Art of Peaceful Living
- “Self-consciousness of the manner is the expensive substitute for simplicity.” ― George Eliot, Middlemarch
- “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
- “Sex, or masturbation, is the only experience that millions of people are able to truly enjoy, despite their knowing that it has not been, is not being, and will not be captured to be shared on social media.” ― Mokokoma Mokhonoana
- “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
- “An ego always looks at his face in the mirror never in his eyes.” ― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words
- “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
- “Confidence cannot escalate to arrogance, it only happens if the blood of pride is running through your veins.” ― Michael Bassey Johnson
- “If only we studied the stars as much as we study our own reflections.” ― Kamand Kojouri
- “If we want to live perfectly happy lives…we must drive out selfish character tendencies such as pride, ego, vanity, jealousy, lusts, envy and worry. When we learn to live selflessly, putting others before ourselves, committing to what is noble, right and good; treating others with love and compassion…that’s when true happiness is experienced. A genuine focus on selflessness cures all and creates an environment for true growth. It’s the secret to every great relationship. We gain…when we give up self. Sacrificing one’s selfish characteristics through diligent thought, meditation, prayer and action gives life to true love and abounding joy.~Jason Versey” ― Jason Versey, A Walk with Prudence
- “No man voluntarily expresses his opinion without some intent to make a difference, and even if he does, he shouldn’t.” ― Criss Jami, Healology
- “Stitched clothes look nice from outside but stitches remain visible inside. More you do embroidery outside, messier it becomes inside. It is also true about people. More you pretend to be something you’re not, messier your real life becomes.” ― Shunya
- “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
- “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
- “Most insensible, corrupt, cheap, disrespectful young girls run after bad, rude, cocky, nonsensical boys, but a mature, educated, thoughtful, virtuos lady opts for a wise, well breed, experienced, humble, modest gentleman.” ― Michael Bassey Johnson
- “But then one regrets the loss even of one’s worst habits. Perhaps one regrets them the most. They are such an essential part of one’s personality.” ― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
- “Vulnerable attempts of wanting to understand myself and the world around me drove me mad. My ego wanted to run too frequently to protect its vanity, but the angel on my shoulder, my sensitive core, suggested self-awareness to the devil.” ― Kristin Michelle Elizabeth
- “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
- “When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity.” ― Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People
- “Look. Survey. Inspect. My hair is ruined! I look like a pan of bacon and eggs!” ― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle
- “Women that can work a camera with ease often work men just as effortlessly for both require the same commitment to vanity and manipulation.” ― Tiffany Madison
- “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
- “As individuals die every moment, how insensitive and fabricated a love it is to set aside a day from selfish routine in prideful, patriotic commemoration of tragedy. Just as God is provoked by those who tithe simply because they feel that they must tithe, I am provoked by those who commemorate simply because they feel that they must commemorate.” ― Criss Jami, Killosophy
- “Amongst democratic nations men easily attain a certain equality of conditions: they can never attain the equality they desire. It perpetually retires from before them, yet without hiding itself from their sight, and in retiring draws them on. At every moment they think they are about to grasp it; it escapes at every moment from their hold. They are near enough to see its charms, but too far off to enjoy them; and before they have fully tasted its delights they die.” ― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America Volume 2
- “Spirituality destroys the ego. Religion strengthens it.” ― Mokokoma Mokhonoana
- “It is naturally given to all men to esteem their own inventions best.” ― Sir Thomas More