“To be happy one must be (a) well fed, unhounded by sordid cares, at ease in Zion, (b) full of a comfortable feeling of superiority to the masses of one's fellow men, and (c) delicately and unceasingly amused according to one's taste. It is my contention that, if this definition be accepted, there is no country in the world wherein a man constituted as I am - a man of my peculiar weakness, vanities, appetites, and aversions - can be so happy as he can be in the United States.” IfsMenWorldWellsCountryStatesFeelingsCareUnitedUnited StatesTasteComfortableMassWeaknessFellowsDefinitionsAcceptedVanityEaseFedsAppetitePeculiarSuperiorityFellow ManAmusedAversionContentionZion Author:H. L. Mencken
“Everyone wants rather to be pleasing to women and that desire is not altogether, though it is very largely, a manifestation of vanity. But one cannot aim to be pleasing to women any more than one can aim to have taste, or beauty of expression, or happiness; for these things are not specific aims which one may learn to attain; they are descriptions of the adequacy of one's living. To try to be happy is to try to build a machine with no other specification than that it shall run noiselessly.” WantTryingMayRunningDesireExpressionTasteMachinesAimVanityManifestationDescriptionSpecificationsAdequacyTrying To Be Happy Author:J. Robert Oppenheimer
“The reputation of a Don Juan gives to a man the most dangerous power. Wise virgins resist it, but foolish virgins frequently yield to the desire to take a celebrated lover from a rival - even from a friend. This emotion is a complex one, mad up of vanity, respect for another woman's taste, and the need to establish self-assurance by winning a difficult victory. Don Juan chose his first mistresses; later he was chosen.” MenNeedsGivingFirstsSelfDesireWinningDifficultEmotionWiseDangerousLoversVictoryTasteMadComplexesFoolishChosenReputationVanityYieldVirginsAssuranceRivalsMistressDon JuanAnother WomanJuanSelf Assurance Author:Andre Maurois
“Helping children at a level of genuine intellectual inquiry takes imagination on the part of the adult. Even more, it takes the courage to become a resource in unfamiliar areas of knowledge and in ones for which one has no taste. But parents, no less than teachers, must respect a child's mind and not exploit it for their own vanity or ambition, or to soothe their own anxiety.” MindChildrenHelpingParentImaginationLevelsTeacherTasteAnxietyAmbitionIntellectualAdultsResourcesAreasGenuineVanityInquiryExploitsUnfamiliarHelping Children Author:Dorothy H Cohen
“You come to know the aches and vanities and tastes and intrigues of an entire neighborhood at a drug store.” KnowsTasteDrugStoresVanityNeighborhoodIntrigueAche Author:Paul Engle
“Vanity is as advantageous to a government as pride is dangerous. To be convinced of this we need only represent, on the one hand,the numberless benefits which result from vanity, as industry, the arts, fashions, politeness, and taste; and on the other, the infinite evils which spring from the pride of certain nations, a laziness, poverty, a total neglect of everything.” NeedsArtHandsGovernmentCertainEvilNationsResultsPovertyFashionDangerousPrideIndustryTasteBenefitsSpringInfiniteConvincedVanityNeglectLazinessPoliteness Author:Baron de Montesquieu
“The vanity of others runs counter to our taste only when it runs counter to our vanity.” RunningTasteVanity Author:Friedrich Nietzsche