Robert Christy, comp. Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1887.

Vanity

All is sugar to the vain, even the praise of fools.

All is vanity and vexation of spirit.Bible.

Every man has just so much vanity as he wants understanding.Pope.

Every man thinks his own copper gold.German, Danish.

Every man thinks his own geese swans.

Every man thinks his own owl a falcon.Dutch.

Every one thinks he has more than his own share of brains.Italian.

Every one thinks himself able to advise another.

I see thy vanity through the holes of thy coat.(Plato speaking to the Cynic Philosopher.)

Make not thy tail broader than thy wings.

Make not your sail too big for your ballast.

No man sympathizes with the sorrows of vanity.Dr. Johnson.

She doesn’t think small beer of herself.Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine.

She that looks too much at herself looks too little to herself.

The cow rails at the pig for being black.Chinese.

The frying-pan says to the kettle, “Avaunt, black brows.”

The kettle calls the sauce-pan smutty.Turkish.

The kiln calls the oven burnt brows.

The pan says to the pot, “Keep off or you’ll smut me.”Italian.

The pot upbraids the kettle that it is black.Dutch.

The raven chides blackness.

The shovel scouts the poker.French.

The sooty oven mocks the black chimney.

There is no doubt that vanity is our principal cause of infidelity.Knox.

Vanity has no greater foe than vanity.French.

Vanity is the food of fools.Swift.

Vanity is the vice of low minds; a man of spirit is too proud to be vain.Swift.

Vanity will prove vexation.

“We hounds killed the hare,” quoth the dog.

“What a dust have I raised,” quoth the fly upon the coach.

“What a dust we kicked up,” said the fly to the car-wheel.

“Your feet are crooked, your hair is good for nothing,” said the pig to the horse.Russian.