Other related topics at: Virtue and Vice 21. Patronage; Vanity "Every man believes that mistresses are unfaithful, and patrons capricious; but he excepts his own mistress, and his own patron. We have all learned that greatness is negligent and contemptuous, and that in Courts life is often languished away in ungratified expectation; but he that approaches greatness, or glitters in a Court, imagines that destiny has at last exempted him from the common lot." Johnson: Letter to Baretti Link 59. Vanity "There lurks, perhaps, in every human heart a desire of distinction, which inclines every man to hope, and then to believe, that nature has given himself something peculiar to himself.   This vanity makes one mind nurse aversion, and another actuate desires, till they rise by art much above their original state of power; and as affectation in time improves to habit, they at last tyrannise over him who at first encouraged them only for show." Boswell: Life Link 69. Relativity; Vanity I mentioned the advice given us by philosophers, to console ourselves, when distressed or embarrassed, by thinking of those who are in a worse situation than ourselves. This, I observed, could not apply to all, for there must be some who have nobody worse than they are. Johnson: "Why, to be sure, Sir, there are; but they don't know it. There is no being so poor and so contemptible, who does not think there is somebody still poorer, and still more contemptible." Boswell: Life Link 95. Vanity We then walked to the Pantheon. ... I said there was not half a guinea's worth in seeing this place. Johnson: "But Sir, there is half a guinea's worth of inferiority to other people in not having seen it." Boswell: "I doubt, Sir, whether there are many happy people here." Johnson: "Yes, Sir, there are many happy people here. There are many people here who are watching hundreds, and who think hundreds are watching them." Boswell: Life Link 103. Flattery; Vanity A gentleman attacked Garrick for being vain. Johnson: "No wonder, Sir, that he is vain; a man who is perpetually flattered in every mode that can be conceived. So many bellows have blown the fire, that one wonders he is not by this time become a cinder." Boswell: Life Link 480. Ambition; Vanity "I consider this mighty structure [the pyramid] as a monument to the insufficiency of human enjoyments. A king, whose power is unlimited, and whose treasures surmount all real and imaginary wants, is compelled to solace, by the erection of a Pyramid, the satiety of dominion and tastelessness of pleasures, and to amuse the tediousness of declining life, by seeing thousands laboring without end, and one stone, for no purpose, laid upon another. Whoever thou art that, not content with a moderate condition, imaginest happiness in royal magnificence, and dreamest that command or riches can feed the appetite of novelty with perpetual gratifications, survey the Pyramids, and confess thy folly." Johnson: Rasselas [Imlac] Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from Rasselas. Link 504. Advice; Criticism; Vanity "Censure is willingly indulged, because it always implies some superiority: men please themselves with imagining that they have made a deeper search, or wider survey than others, and detected faults and follies which escape vulgar observation." Johnson: Rambler #2 (March 24, 1750) Link 519. Career Choices; Vanity "A man truly zealous for his fraternity is never so irresistibly flattered as when some rival calling is mentioned with contempt." Johnson: Rambler #9 (April 17, 1750) Link 553. Ambition; Vanity "The known shortness of life, as it ought to moderate our passions, may likewise, with equal propriety, contract our designs. There is not time for the most forcible genius, and most active industry, to extend its effect beyond a certain sphere. To project the conquest of the world is the madness of mighty princes; to hope for excellence in every science has been the folly of literary heroes: and both have found as last, that they have panted for a height of eminence denied to humanity, and have lost many opportunities of making themselves useful and happy, by a vain ambition of obtaining a species of honour, which the eternal laws of Providence have placed beyond the reach of man." Johnson: Rambler #17 (May 15, 1750) Link 554. History; Vanity "The miscarriages of the great designs of princes are recorded in the histories of the world, but are of little use to the bulk of mankind, who seem very little interested in admonitions against errors which they cannot commit." Johnson: Rambler #17 (May 15, 1750) Link 567. Vanity "Every man is prompted by the love of himself to imagine that he possesses some qualities, superior, either in kind or degree, to those which he sees allotted to the rest of the world; and, whatever apparent disadvantages he may suffer in the comparison with others, he has some invisible distinctions, some latent reserve of excellence, which he throws into the balance, and by which he generally fancies that it is turned in his favour." Johnson: Rambler #21 (May 29, 1750) Link 571. Vanity; Writing "We are blinded in examining our own labours by innumerable prejudices. Our juvenile compositions please us, because they bring to our minds the remembrance of youth; our later performances we are ready to esteem, because we are unwilling to think that we made no improvement; what flows easily from the pen charms us, because we read with pleasure that which flatters our opinion of our own powers; what was composed with great struggles of the mind we do not easily reject, because we cannot bear that so much labour should be fruitless. But the reader has none of these prepossessions, and wonders that the authour is so unlike himself, without considering that the same soil will, with different culture, afford different products." Johnson: Rambler #21 (May 29, 1750) Link 576. Self-Knowledge; Vanity "If it be reasonable to estimate the difficulty of any enterprise by frequent miscarriages, it may justly be concluded that it is not easy for a man to know himself; for, wheresoever we turn our view, we shall find almost all, with whom we converse so nearly as to judge of their sentiments, indulging more favourable conceptions of their own virtue than they have been able to impress upon others, and congratulating themselves upon degrees of excellence which their fondest admirers cannot allow them to have attained." Johnson: Rambler #28 (June 23, 1750) Link 577. Self-Knowledge; Vanity "It is, indeed, not easy to tell how far we may be blinded by the love of ourselves, when we reflect how much a secondary passion can cloud our judgment, and how few faults a man, in the first raptures of love, can discover in the person or conduct of his mistress." Johnson: Rambler #28 (June 23, 1750) Link 578. Vanity "One sophism, by which men persuade themselves that they have those virtues which they really want, is formed by the substitution of single acts for habits. A miser, who once relieved a friend from the danger of a prison, suffers his imagination to dwell for ever upon his own heroic generosity; he yields his heart up to indignation at those who are blind to merit or insensible to misery, and who can please themselves with the enjoyment of that wealth which they never permit others to partake. From any censures of the world, or reproaches of his conscience, he has an appeal to action and to knowledge; and though his whole life is a course of rapacity and avarice, he concludes himself to be tender and liberal, because he has once performed an act of liberality and tenderness." Johnson: Rambler #28 (June 23, 1750) Link 579. Vanity "Those faults which we cannot conceal from our own notice are considered [by us], however frequent, not as habitual corruptions or settled practices, but as casual failures and single lapses." Johnson: Rambler #28 (June 23, 1750) Link 580. Vanity "A man who has, from year to year, set his country to sale, either for the gratification of his ambition or resentment, confesses that the heat of party now and then betrays the severest virtue to measures that cannot be seriously defended. He that spends his days and nights in riot and debauchery owns that his passions oftentimes overpower his resolution. But each comforts himself that his faults are not without precedent, for the best and the wisest men have given way to the violence of sudden temptations." Johnson: Rambler #28 (June 23, 1750) Link 581. Vanity "There are men who always confound the praise of goodness with the practice, and who believe themselves mild and moderate, charitable and faithful, because they have exerted their eloquence in commendation of mildness, fidelity, and other virtues. [...] The tribe is likewise very numerous of those who regulate their lives, not by the standard of religion, but the measure of other men's virtue; who lull their own remorse with the remembrance of crimes more atrocious than their own, and seem to believe that they are not bad while another can be found worse." Johnson: Rambler #28 (June 23, 1750) Link 599. Fallibility; Offense; Pride; Vanity "In whatever ... we wish or imagine ourselves to excel, we shall always be displeased to have our claims to reputation be disputed, and more displeased, if the accomplishment be such as can expect reputation only for its reward." Johnson: Rambler #40 (August 4, 1750) Link 612. Ambition; Vanity; Vision "The general error of those who possess powerful and elevated understandings is, that they form schemes of too great extent, and flatter themselves too hastily with success; they feel their own force to be great, and, by the complacency with which every man surveys himself, imagine it still greater: they therefore look out for undertakings worthy of their abilities, and engage in them with very little precaution; for they imagine that, without premeditated measures, they shall be able to find expedients in all difficulties. They are naturally apt to consider all prudential maxims as below their regard, to treat with contempt those securities and resources which others know themselves obliged to provide, and disdain to accomplish their purposes by established means and common gradations." Johnson: Rambler #43 (August 14, 1750) Link 643. Humanity; Vanity "Man is a transitory being, and his designs must partake of the imperfections of their author. To confer duration is not always in our power. We must snatch the present moment, and employ it well, without too much solicitude for the future, and content ourselves with reflecting that our part is performed. He that waits for an opportunity to do much at once, may breathe out his life in idle wishes, and regret, in the last hour, his useless intentions and barren zeal." Johnson: Idler #4 (May 6, 1758) Link 709. Desire; Vanity "Most of the conditions of life, which raise the envy of the timorous, and raise the ambition of the daring, are empty shows of felicity, which, when they become familiar, lose their power of delighting." Johnson: Rambler #66 (November 3, 1750) Link 710. Envy; Humanity; Misery; Vanity "It is natural for every man uninstructed to murmur at his condition, because, in the general infelicity of life, he feels his own miseries without knowing that they are common to all the rest of the species; and, therefore, though he will not be less sensible of pain by being told that others are equally tormented, he will at least be freed from the temptation of seeking, by perpetual changes, that ease which is no where to be found, and though his diseases still continue, he escapes the hazard of exasperating it by remedies." Johnson: Rambler #66 (November 3, 1750) Link 711. Envy; Humanity; Moral Instruction; Vanity "The gratification which affluence of wealth, extent of power, and eminence of reputation confer, must be always, by their own nature, confined to a very small number; and the life of the greater part of mankind must be lost in empty wishes and painful comparisons, were not the balm of philosophy shed upon us, and our discontent at the appearances of unequal distribution soothed and appeased." Johnson: Rambler #66 (November 3, 1750) Link 712. Vanity "The desire of excellence is laudable, but is very frequently ill directed." Johnson: Rambler #66 (November 3, 1750) Link 714. Comeuppance; Fame; Vanity "It is common to consider those whom we find infected with an unreasonable regard for trifling accomplishments, as chargeable with all the consequences of their folly, and as the authors of their own unhappiness; but, perhaps, those whom we thus scorn or detest have more claim to tenderness than has been yet allowed to them. Before we permit our severity to break loose upon any fault or error, we ought surely to consider how much we have countenanced or promoted it. We see multitudes busied in the pursuits of riches, at the expense of wisdom or virtue; but we see the rest of mankind approving their conduct, and inciting their eagerness, by paying that regard and deference to wealth which wisdom and virtue only can deserve." Johnson: Rambler #66 (November 3, 1750) Link 715. Vanity "In every instance of vanity it will be found, that the blame ought to be shared among more than it generally reaches; all who exalt trifles by immoderate praise, or instigate needless emulation by invidious incitements, are to be considered as perverters of reason and corrupters of the world." Johnson: Rambler #66 (November 3, 1750) Link 716. Vanity "Of those that spin out trifles and die without a memorial, many flatter themselves with high opinions of their own importance, and imagine that they are every day adding some improvement to human life." Johnson: Idler #17 (August 5, 1758) Link 727. Appearances; Pleasure; Vanity "Pleasure is ... seldom such as it appears to others, nor often such as we represent it to ourselves. Of the ladies that sparkle at a musical performance, a very small number has any quick sensibility of harmonious sounds. But every one that goes has her pleasure. She has the pleasure of wearing fine clothes, and of showing them, of outshining those whom she suspects to envy her; she has the pleasure of appearing among other ladies in a place where the race of meaner mortals seldom intrudes, and of reflecting that, in the conversations of the next morning, her name will be mentioned among those that sat in the first row." Johnson: Idler #18 (August 12, 1758) Link 728. Appearances; Diversion; Fashion; Pleasure; Vanity "Whatever diversion is costly will be frequented by those who desire to be thought rich; and whatever has, by any accident, become fashionable, easily continues its reputation, because every one is ashamed of not partaking it." Johnson: Idler #18 (August 12, 1758) Link 757. Vanity; Writing "A writer who obtains his full purpose loses himself in his own lustre." Johnson: Dryden (Lives of the Poets) Link 794. Mortality; Vanity; Virtue "Among the many improvements made by the last centuries in human knowledge, may be numbered the exact calculations of the value of life; but whatever may be their use in traffic, they seem very little to have advanced morality. They have hitherto rather been applied to the acquisition of money than of wisdom; the computer refers none of his calculations to his own tenure, but persists, in contempt of probability, to foretell old age to himself, and believes that he is marked out to reach the utmost verge of human existence, and see thousands and ten thousands fall into the grave." Johnson: Rambler #71 (November 20, 1750) Link 800. Vanity "There are many whose vanity always inclines them to associate with those whom they have no reason to fear mortification; and there are times in which the wise and the knowing are willing to receive praise without the labour of deserving it, in which the most elevated mind is willing to descend, and the most active to rest. All, therefore, are at some hour or another fond of companions whom they can entertain upon easy terms, and who will relieve them from solicitude, without condemning them to vigilance and caution." Johnson: Rambler #72 (November 24, 1750) Link 822. Vanity; Writing "Every man is of importance to himself, and, therefore, in his own opinion, to others; and, supposing the world already acquainted with his pleasures and his pains, is perhaps the first to publish injuries or misfortunes which had never been known unless related by himself, and at which those that hear them will only laugh, for no man sympathises with the sorrows of vanity." Johnson: Pope (Lives of the Poets) Link 823. Anger; Vanity "The man who threatens the world is always ridiculous; for the world can easily go on without him, and in a short time will cease to miss him." Johnson: Pope (Lives of the Poets) Link 824. Flattery; Retirement; Vanity "Pope had been flattered till he thought himself one of the moving powers of the system of life. When he talked of laying down his pen, those who sat round him intreated and implored; and self-love did not suffer him to suspect that they went away and laughed." Johnson: Pope (Lives of the Poets) Link 838. Flattery; Vanity "But, perhaps, the flatterer is not often detected; for an honest mind is not apt to suspect, and no one exerts the power of discernment with much vigour when selflove favors the deceit." Johnson: Rambler #75 (December 4, 1750) Link 840. Responsibility; Vanity "It is easy for every man, whatever be his character with others, to find reasons for esteeming himself; and therefore censure, contempt, or conviction of crimes seldom deprives him of his own favour. Those, indeed, who can see only external facts, may look upon him with abhorrence, but when he calls himself to his own tribunal, he finds every fault, if not absolutely effaced, yet so much palliated by the goodness of his intention, and the cogency of the motive, that very little guilt or turpitude remains; and when he takes a survey of the whole complication of his character, he discovers so many latent excellencies, so many virtues that want but an opportunity to exert themselves in act, and so many kind wishes for universal happiness, that he looks on himself as suffering unjustly under the infamy of single failings, while the general temper of his mind in unknown or unregarded." Johnson: Rambler #76 (December 8, 1750) Link 846. Hypocrisy; Letters; Self-Knowledge; Vanity "To charge those favourable representations which men give of their own minds with the guilt of hypocritical falsehood, would show more severity than knowledge. The writer commonly believes himself. Almost every man's thoughts, while they are general, are right; and most hearts are pure while temptation is away. It is easy to awaken generous sentiments in privacy; to despise death when there is no danger; to glow with benevolence when there is nothing to be given. While such ideas are formed they are felt, and self-love does not suspect the gleam of virtue to be the meteor of fancy." Johnson: Pope (Lives of the Poets) Link 878. Vanity "That desire which every man feels of being remembered and lamented is often mortified when we remark how little concern is caused by the eternal departure even of those who have passed their lives with public honours, and been distinguished by extraordinary performances." Johnson: Rambler #78 (December 15, 1750) Link 932. Hobbies; Vanity "Between men of different studies and professions may be observed a constant reciprocation of reproaches. The collector of shells and stones derides the folly of him who pastes leaves and flowers upon paper pleases himself with colours that are perceptibly fading, and amasses with care what cannot be preserved. The hunter of insects stands amazed that any man can waste his short time upon lifeless matter, while many tribes of animals yet want their history. Every one is inclined not only to promote his own study, but to exclude all others from regard, and having heated his imagination with some favourite pursuit, wonders that the rest of mankind are not seized with the same passion." Johnson: Rambler #83 (January 1, 1751) Link 966. Advice; Posturing; Vanity "Advice, as it always gives a temporary appearance of superiority, can never be very grateful, even when it is most necessary or most judicious. But for the same reason everyone is eager to instruct his neighbours. To be wise or to be virtuous is to buy dignity and importance at a high price; but when nothing is necessary to elevation but detection of the follies or faults of others, no man is so insensible to the voice of fame as to linger on the ground." Johnson: Rambler #87 (January 15, 1751) Link 967. Advice; Vanity "Vanity is so frequently the apparent motive of advice that we, for the most part, summon our powers to oppose it without very accurate inquiry whether it is right. It is sufficient that another is growing great in his own eyes at our expense, and assumes authority over us without our permission; for many would contentedly suffer the consequences of their own mistakes, rather than the insolence of him who triumphs as their deliverer." Johnson: Rambler #87 (January 15, 1751) Link 968. Advice; Vanity "There are few so free from vanity as not to dictate to those who will hear their instructions with a visible sense of their own beneficence." Johnson: Rambler #87 (January 15, 1751) Link 972. Ego Defenses; Superficiality; Truth; Vanity; Virtue "Though truth and virtue are ... frequently defeated by pride, obstinacy, or folly, we are not allowed to desert them; for whoever can furnish arms which they hitherto have not employed, may enable them to gain some hearts which would have resisted any other method of attack. Every man of genius has some art of fixing the attention peculiar to himself, by which, honestly exerted, he may benefit mankind; for the arguments for purity of life fail of their due influence, not because they have been considered and confuted, but because they have been passed over without consideration." Johnson: Rambler #87 (January 15, 1751) Link 1,066. Vanity "It was not very common to steer with much care or prudence; for, by some universal infatuation every man appeared to think himself safe, though he saw his consorts every moment sinking around him; and no sooner had the waves closed over them than their fate and misconduct were forgotten; the voyage was pursued with the same jocund confidence." Johnson: Rambler #102 (March 9, 1751) — a dream Link 1,078. Vanity "The greatest human virtue bears no proportion to human vanity. We always think ourselves better than we are, and are generally desirous that others should think us still better than we think ourselves. To praise us for actions or dispositions which deserve praise is not to confer a benefit, but to pay a tribute. We have always pretensions to fame, which in our own hearts we know to be disputable, and which we are desirous to strengthen by a new suffrage; we have always hopes which we suspect to be fallacious, and of which we eagerly snatch at every confirmation." Johnson: Rambler #104 (March 16, 1751) Link 1,081. Greed; Patronage; Toadies; Vanity "It is dangerous for mean minds to venture themselves within the sphere of greatness. Stupidity is soon blinded by the splendour of wealth, and cowardice is easily fettered in the shackles of dependence. To solicit patronage is, at least, in the event, to set virtue to sale. None can be pleased without praise, and few can be praised without falsehood; few can be assiduous without servility, and none can be servile without corruption." Johnson: Rambler #104 (March 16, 1751) Link 1,084. Writing; Vanity "An assurance of unfading laurels, and immortal reputation, is the settled reciprocation of civility between amicable writers. To raise monuments more durable than brass, and more conspicuous than pyramids, has been long the common boast of literature; but among the innumerable architects that erect columns to themselves, far the greater part, either for want of durable materials, or of art to dispose them, see their edifices perish as they are towering to completion; and those few that for a while attract the eye of mankind are generally weak in the foundation, and soon sink by the saps of time." Johnson: Rambler #106 (March 23, 1751) Link 1,085. Obscurity; Writing; Vanity "No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library; for who can see the wall crowded on every side by mighty volumes, the works of laborious meditations and accurate inquiry, now scarcely known but by the catalogue..." Johnson: Rambler #106 (March 23, 1751) Link 1,105. Audacity; Diligence; Vanity; Youth "I am afraid there is little hope of persuading the young and sprightly part of my readers... to learn... the difference between diligence and hurry, between speed and precipitation; to prosecute their designs with calmness, to watch the concurrence of opportunity, and, endeavour to find the lucky moment which they cannot make. Youth is the time of enterprise and hope; having yet no occasion of comparing our force with any opposing power, we naturally form presumptions in our own favour, and imagine that obstruction and impediment will give way before us. The first repulses rather inflame vehemence than teach prudence; a brave and generous mind is long before it suspects its own weakness, or submits to sap the difficulties which it suspected to subdue by storm. Before disappointments have enforced the dictates of philosophy, we believe it in our power to shorten the interval between the first cause and the last effect; we laugh at the timorous delay of plodding industry, and fancy that, by increasing the fire, we can at pleasure accelerate the projection." Johnson: Rambler #111 (April 9, 1751) Link 1,153. Vanity "There are many things which we every day see others unable to perform, and perhaps have even ourselves miscarried in attempting, and yet can hardly allow to be difficult; nor can we forbear to wonder afresh at every new failure, or to promise certainty of success to our next essay; but when we try, the same hinderances recur, the same inability is perceived, and the vexation of disappointment must again be suffered." Johnson: Rambler #122 (May 18, 1751) Link 1,168. Disappointment; Vanity "It is the state of industry to be equally endangered by miscarriages and success, by confidence and despondency. He that engages in a great undertaking with a false opinion of its facility, or too high conceptions of his own strength, is easily discouraged by the first hinderance of his advances, because he had promised himself an equal and perpetual progression without impediment or disturbance; when unexpected interruptions break in upon him, he is in the state of a man surprised by a tempest, where he purposed only to bask in the calm, or sport in the shallows." Johnson: Rambler #127 (June 4, 1751) Link 1,170. Vanity "The folly of desisting too soon from successful labours, and the haste of enjoying advantages before they are secured, is often fatal to men of impetuous desire, to men whose consciousness of uncommon powers fills them with presumption, and who having borne opposition down before them, and left emulation panting behind, are easily persuaded to imagine that they have reached the heights of perfection, and that now, being no longer in danger from competitors, they may pass the rest of their days in the enjoyment of their acquisitions, in contemplation of their own superiority, and in attention to their own praises, and look unconcerned from their eminence upon the toils and contentions of meaner beings." Johnson: Rambler #127 (June 4, 1751) Link 1,171. Corruption; Vanity "As no man willingly quits opinions favourable to himself, they who have once been justly celebrated imagine that they still have the same pretensions to regard, and seldom perceive the diminution of their character while there is still time to recover it." Johnson: Rambler #127 (June 4, 1751) Link 1,172. Humility; Vanity "He that never extends his view beyond the praises or rewards of men will be dejected by neglect and envy, or infatuated by honours and applause. But the consideration that life is only deposited in his hands to be employed in obedience to a master who will regard his endeavours, not his success, would have preserved him from trivial elations and discouragements, and enabled him to proceed with constancy and cheerfulness, neither enervated by commendation nor intimidated by censure." Johnson: Rambler #127 (June 4, 1751) Link 1,209. Intimidation; Perseverance; Vanity "To expect that the intricacies of science will be pierced by a careless glance, or the eminences of fame ascended without labour, is to expect a peculiar privilege, a power denied to the rest of mankind; but to suppose that the maze is inscrutable to diligence, or the heights inaccessible to perseverance, is to submit tamely to the tyranny of fancy, and enchain the mind in voluntary shackles." Johnson: Rambler #137 (July 9, 1751) Link 1,255. Vanity "No man is willing to believe that he suffers by his own fault." Johnson: Rambler #153 (September 3, 1751) Link 1,258. Vanity "No estimate is more in danger of erroneous calculations than those by which a man computes the force of his own genius." Johnson: Rambler #154 (September 7, 1751) Link 1,259. Vanity "It generally happens at our entrance into the world, that by the natural attraction of similitude we associate with men like ourselves, young, sprightly, and ignorant, and rate our accomplishments by comparison with theirs; when we have once obtained an acknowledged superiority over our acquaintances, imagination and desires easily extend it over the rest of mankind, and if no accident forces us into new emulations, we grow old and die in admiration of ourselves." Johnson: Rambler #154 (September 7, 1751) Link 1,266. Vanity "Self-love is often rather arrogant than blind; it does not hide our faults from ourselves, but persuades us that they escape the notice of others, and disposes us to resent censures lest we should confess them to be just. We are secretly conscious of defects and vices which we hope to conceal form the public eye, and please ourselves with innumerable impostures, by which, in reality, nobody is deceived." Johnson: Rambler #155 (September 10, 1751) Link 1,268. Advice; Vanity "Advice is offensive, not because it lays us open to unexpected regret, or convicts us of any fault which had escaped our notice, but because it shows us that we are known to others as well as to ourselves; and the officious monitor is persecuted with hatred, not because his accusation is false, but because he assumes that superiority which we are not willing to grant him, and has dared to detect what we desired to conceal." Johnson: Rambler #155 (September 10, 1751) Link 1,269. Advice; Temptation; Vanity "If those who follow the call of their desires, without inquiry whither they are going, had deviated ignorantly from the paths of wisdom, and were rushing upon dangers unforeseen, they would readily listen to information that recalls them from their errors, and catch the first alarm by which destruction or infamy is denounced. Few that wander in the wrong way mistake it for the right; they only find it more smooth and flowery, and indulge their own choice rather than approve it: therefore few are persuaded to quit it by admonition or reproof, since it impresses no new conviction, nor confers any action or resistance. He that is gravely informed how soon profusion will annihilate his fortune, hears with little advantage what he knew before, and catches at the next occasion of expense, because advice has no force to suppress his vanity. He that is told how certainly intemperance will hurry him to the grave runs with his usual speed to a new course of luxury, because his reason is not invigorated, nor his appetite weakened." Johnson: Rambler #155 (September 10, 1751) Link 1,287. Arrogance; Pressure; Shyness; Vanity "No cause more frequently produces bashfulness than too high an opinion of our own importance. He that imagines an assembly filled with his merit, panting with expectation, and hushed with attention, easily terrifies himself with the dread of disappointing them, and strains his imagination in pursuit of something that may vindicate the veracity of fame, and show that his reputation was not gained by chance." Johnson: Rambler #159 (September 24, 1751) Link 1,305. Appropriateness; Deceit; Vanity On why there is not always a natural fit between the available work and the available labor supply: "...the benefit of this adaptation of men to things is not always perceived. The folly or indigence of those who set their services to sale inclines them to boast of qualifications which they do not possess, and attempt business which they do not understand; and they who have the power of assigning to others the task of life are seldom honest or seldom happy in their nominations." Johnson: Rambler #160 (September 28, 1751) Link 1,308. Class; Loneliness; Vanity "It is not often difficult to find a suitable companion, if every man would be content with such as he is qualified to please. But if vanity tempts him to forsake his rank, and post himself among those with whom no common interest or mutual pleasure can ever unite him, he must always live in a state of unsocial separation, without tenderness and without trust." Johnson: Rambler #160 (September 28, 1751) Link 1,322. Self-Consciousness; Vanity "Distinction is so pleasing to the pride of man that a great part of the pain and pleasure of life arises from the gratification or disappointment of an incessant wish for superiority, from the success or miscarriage of secret competitions, from victories and defeats, of which, though they appear to us of great importance, in reality none are conscious except ourselves." Johnson: Rambler #164 (October 12, 1751) Link 1,323. Vanity "Proportionate to the prevalence of this love of praise is the variety of means by which its attainment is attempted. Every man, however hopeless his pretensions may appear to all but himself, has some project by which he hopes to rise to reputation; some art by which he imagines that the notice of the world will be attracted; some quality, good or bad, which discriminates him from the common herd of mortals, and by which others may be persuaded to love, or compelled to fear him." Johnson: Rambler #164 (October 12, 1751) Link 1,324. Ambition; Vanity "We seldom require more to the happiness of the present hour than to surpass him that stands next before us." Johnson: Rambler #164 (October 12, 1751) Link 1,350. Quality; Vanity "No vanity can more justly incur contempt and indignation than that which boasts of negligence and hurry." Johnson: Rambler #169 (October 29, 1751) Link 1,351. Diligence; Vanity "Men have sometimes appeared of such transcendent abilities that their slightest and most cursory performances excel all that labour and study can enable meaner intellects to compose; as there are regions of which the spontaneous products cannot be equaled in other soils by care and culture. But it is no less dangerous for any man to place himself in this rank of understanding, and fancy that he is born to be illustrious without labour, than to omit the cares of husbandry, and expect from his ground the blossoms of Arabia." Johnson: Rambler #169 (October 29, 1751) Link 1,352. Vanity "Ardour of confidence is usually found among those who, having not enlarged their notions by books or conversation, are persuaded, by the partiality which we all feel in our own favour, that they have reached the summit of excellence, because they discover none higher than themselves, and who acquiesce in the first thoughts that occur, because their scantiness of knowledge allows them little choice, and the narrowness of their views affords them no glimpse of perfection of that sublime idea which human industry has from the first ages been vainly toiling to approach." Johnson: Rambler #169 (October 29, 1751) Link 1,424. Vanity "Every one wishes for the distinctions for which thousands are wishing at the same time, in their own opinion, with better claims." Johnson: Rambler #185 (December 24, 1751) Link 1,432. Conversation; Vanity; Wit "None of the desires dictated by vanity is more general, or less blamable, than that of being distinguished for the arts of conversation." Johnson: Rambler #188 (January 4, 1752) Link 1,440. Posturing; Vanity "Almost every man wastes part of his life in attempts to display qualities which he does not possess, and to gain applauses which he cannot keep; so that scarcely can two persons meet, but one is offended or diverted by the ostentation of the other." Johnson: Rambler #189 (January 7, 1752) Link 1,443. Delusion; Flattery; Vanity "Few men survey themselves with so much severity as not to admit prejudices in their own favour, which an artful flatterer may gradually strengthen, till wishes for a particular qualification are improved to hopes of attainment, and hopes of attainment to belief of possession." Johnson: Rambler #189 (January 7, 1752) Link 1,518. Vanity "Vanity pleases herself with such slight gratifications, and looks forward to pleasure so remotely consequential, that her practices raise no alarm, and her stratagems are not easily discovered." Johnson: Adventurer #50 (April 28, 1753) Link 1,519. Vanity "Scarce any man is abstracted one moment from his vanity; and he, to whom truth affords no gratifications, is generally inclined to seek them in falsehoods." Johnson: Adventurer #50 (April 28, 1753) Link 1,551. Vanity "We are all naturally credulous in our own favour." Johnson: Adventurer #74 (July 21, 1753) Link 1,552. Ambition; Vanity "To think highly of ourselves in comparison with others, to assume by our own authority that precedence which none is willing to grant us, must be always invidious and offensive; but to rate our powers high in proportion to things, and imagine ourselves equal to great undertakings, while we leave others in possession of the same abilities, cannot with equal justice provoke censure." Johnson: Adventurer #81 (August 14, 1753) Link 1,555. Posturing; Vanity "Every man in the journey of life takes ... advantage of the ignorance of his fellow travellers, disguises himself in counterfeited merit, and hears those praises with complacency which his conscience reproaches him for accepting. Every man deceives himself while he thinks he is deceiving others; and forgets that the time is at hand when every illusion shall cease, when fictitious excellence shall be torn away, and all must be shown to all in their real estate." Johnson: Adventurer #84 (August 25, 1753) Link 1,567. Vanity "Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble." Johnson: Rambler #135 (July 2, 1751) Link 1,642. Idleness; Vanity "When we analyse the crowd into individuals, it soon appears that the passions and imaginations of men will not easily suffer them to be idle: we see things coveted merely because they are rare, and pursued because they are fugitive; we see men conspire to fix an arbitrary value on that which is worthless in itself, and then contend for the possession." Johnson: Adventurer #128 (January 26, 1754) Link 1,720. Vanity "There is not, perhaps, among the multitudes of all conditions that swarm upon the earth a single man who does not believe that he has something extraordinary to relate of himself; and who does not, at one time or another, summon the attention of his friends to the casualties of his adventures, and the vicissitudes of his fortune; casualties and vicissitudes that happen alike in lives uniform and diversified; to the commander of armies, and the writer at a desk; to the sailor who resigns himself to the wind and water, and the farmer whose longest journey is to the market." Johnson: Idler #50 (March 31, 1759) Link 1,721. Life; Vanity "In the present state of the world man may pass through Shakespeare's seven stages of life, and meet nothing singular or wonderful. But such is every man's attention to himself, that what is common and unheeded when it is only seen, becomes remarkable and peculiar when we happen to feel it." Johnson: Idler #50 (March 31, 1759) Link 1,722. Vanity "In pleasures or calamities, however common, every one has comforts and afflictions of his own." Johnson: Idler #50 (March 31, 1759) Link 1,766. Complacency; Ego Defenses; Vanity "Vanity inclines us to find faults any where rather than in ourselves." Johnson: Idler #70 (August 18, 1759) Link