quotations about conceit
Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,
Brags of his substance, not of ornament:
They are but beggars that can count their worth.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Romeo and Juliet
Be not wise in your own conceits.
BIBLE
Romans 12:16
Conceit is just as natural a thing to human minds as a center is to a circle.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
From Day to Day with Holmes
A swelled head seldom covers a broad mind.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
Involvement with conceit is a disease, involvement with conceit is a tumor, involvement with conceit is a dart. Therefore ... we will dwell with a mind in which conceit has been struck down.
BUDDHA
Salayatanasamyutta
No matter the self-conceited importance of our labors we are all compost for worlds we cannot yet imagine.
DAVID WHYTE
Consolations
Talk about conceit as much as you like, it is to human character what salt is to the ocean; it keeps it sweet and renders it endurable. Say rather it is like the natural unguent of the sea-fowl's plumage, which enables him to shed the rain that falls on him and the waves in which he dips. When one has had all his conceit taken out of him, when he has lost all his illusions, his feathers will soon soak through, and he will fly no more.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes and His Works
Conceit is lovable and unconcealed ; vanity is supreme selfishness, usually hidden.
MYRTLE REED
The Spinster Book
Conceit is a disease
That the doctors got no cure
They’ve done a lot of research on it
But what it is, they’re still not sure.
BOB DYLAN
Disease of Conceit
Thy conceit is nearer death than thy powers.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
As You Like It
Humility does not mean that conceit doesn't arise in the mind; it means that conceit is met with the wisdom of not taking the inflation personally. Usually when we are feeling inflated and conceited, we believe the ego's insistence that we are better or worse than others. Humility is a practice that allows us to override that insistence and arrive at a wise relationship to the ego. It takes constant vigilance, because the mind is constantly creating (and attempting to give permanence to) a self out of that aspect of our experience that we call ego, constantly creating conceit.
NOAH LEVINE
The Heart of the Revolution
Those who are talentless themselves are the first to talk about the conceit of others; for mediocrity bears but one flower--ENVY.
CHARLES WILLIAM DAY
The Maxims
Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty; it is not only needless, but impairs what it would improve.
ALEXANDER POPE
letter to Mr. Walsh, Jul. 2, 1706
Conceited people are never without a certain degree of harmless satisfaction, wherewith to flavor the waters of life.
MME. DELUZY
attributed, Day's Collacon
Self-conceit is a most dangerous shelf
Where many have made shipwreck unawares;
He who doth trust too much unto himself
Can never fail to fall in many snares.
EARL OF STIRLING
attributed, Treasury of Wisdom
Conceit grows as naturally as the hair on one's head, but it takes longer to come out.
THOMAS C. HALIBURTON
attributed, 20,000 Quips & Quotes
There are some who conceit themselves very learned whilst they know nothing, or very wise and clever while they are exposing themselves to perpetual ridicule for their folly, or very handsome while the world calls them plain, or very peaceable while they are always quarrelling with their neighbors, or very humble whilst they are tenaciously stickling for their own; it would be well if such conceits afforded a harmless pleasure to their authors, but unfortunately they only render them more offensive and disgusting than they would otherwise be.
G. CRABB
attributed, Day's Collacon
The greatest magnifying glasses in the world are a man's own eyes when they look upon his own person.
ALEXANDER POPE
letter to Mr. Wycherley, Jun. 23, 1705
He was so conceited that he wore his mirrored sunglasses backwards.
MARY ANN MADDEN
New York Magazine, February 16, 1981
By focusing on the trivial or superficial, conceited people do not distinguish between features for which they have responsibility and those with which they merely happened to be born. They base much of their self-esteem on characteristics that are beyond their control rather than on the results of their own efforts.
GROLIER EDUCATIONAL CORPORATION
Ethics and Values: Volume 2