Vain? Let it be so! Nature was her teacher,
What if a lovely and unsistered creature
Loved read more

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.,

When you're 50 you start thinking about things you haven't thought about before. I used to think getting old was read more

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.

There are no grades of vanity, there are only grades of ability in concealing it

There are no grades of vanity, there are only grades of ability in concealing it

Methinks I am a prophet new inspired
And thus, expiring, do foretell of him:
His rash fierce read more

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.

Vanity is so secure in the heart of man that everyone wants to be admired: even I who write this, read more

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.

"Vanitas vanitatum" has rung in the ears
Of gentle and simple for thousands of years;
The wail read more

"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.

If a person is to get the meaning of life he must learn to like the facts about himself -- read more

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.

Ecclesiastes said that "all is vanity,"
Most modern preachers say the same, or show it
By their read more

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.

Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a
lie: to be laid in read more

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.