THE TRUTH ABOUT VANITY

 

          THE TRUTH ABOUT VANITY

‘Vanity” is defined as too much pride in your own appearance, abilities, or achievements.  

The thoughts of some writers on vanity are:

*Every man has just as much vanity as he wants understanding.---English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744).

**Vanity makes us do more things against inclination than reason.---French author Francis de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680).

*** Vanity keeps persons in favour with themselves, who are out of favour with all others.--- English poet-playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616).

****Of all our infirmities, vanity is the dearest to us; a man will starve his other vices to keep that alive. ---American statesman Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790).

*****Vanity is the foundation of the most ridiculous and contemptible vices ---the vices of affectation and common lying. ----Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790).

            The word ‘vanity’ is also used to mean the quality of being worthless or futile.

The English author Samuel Johnson wrote a satirical poem The Vanity of Human Wishes in the autumn l of 1748. It was an imitation of the tenth satire of the Roman poet (Born 55AD) .  

The moral of Johnson’s poem is that happiness can only be found through submission to God.      

            The English author William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) wrote the novel “Vanity Fair. He took this title from the “Pilgrims’s Progress” a book written by the English writer John Bunyan (1628-1688).  In Bunyan’s book ‘vanity fair’ refers to a market place in the fictional town of vanity know as the entre of human corruption in the 17^th century.  

According to a literary opinion  the moral of Thackeray’s novel Vanity Fair is that the pursuit of worldly vanity and social status often leads to moral corruption and unhappiness.

            To conclude, this very short quote : The surest cure for vanity is loneliness.

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G.R.Kanwal

26 January 2025