The common practice of keeping up appearances with society is a mere selfish struggle of the vain with the vain.

The common practice of keeping up appearances with society is a mere selfish struggle of the vain with the vain.

How many saucy airs we meet,
From Temple Bar to Aldgate street!

How many saucy airs we meet,
From Temple Bar to Aldgate street!

Nothing makes one so vain as being told one is a sinner. Conscience makes egotists of us all.

Nothing makes one so vain as being told one is a sinner. Conscience makes egotists of us all.

Hoy-day!
What a sweep of vanity comes this way!

Hoy-day!
What a sweep of vanity comes this way!

"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.

My father said, "Politics asks the question: Is it expedient? Vanity asks: Is it popular? But conscience asks: Is it read more

My father said, "Politics asks the question: Is it expedient? Vanity asks: Is it popular? But conscience asks: Is it right?"

Here files of pins extend their shining rows,
Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billet-doux.

Here files of pins extend their shining rows,
Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billet-doux.

Vanity is as ill as ease under indifference as tenderness is
under a love which it cannot return.

Vanity is as ill as ease under indifference as tenderness is
under a love which it cannot return.

Rome took all the vanity out of me; for after seeing the wonders there, I felt too insignificant to live, read more

Rome took all the vanity out of me; for after seeing the wonders there, I felt too insignificant to live, and gave up all my foolish hopes in despair.