Vanity

In conventional parlance, vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others (Stephen LaMarche). Prior to the 14th century it did not have such narcissistic undertones, and merely meant futility. The related term vainglory is now often seen as an archaic synonym for vanity, but originally meant boasting in vain, i.e. unjustified boasting; although glory is now seen as having an exclusively positive meaning, the Latin term gloria (from which it derives) roughly means boasting, and was often used as a negative criticism.

Famous quotes containing the word vanity:

“The vanity of men, a constant insult to women, is also the ground for the implicit feminine claim of superior sensitivity and morality.”
—Patricia Meyer Spacks (b. 1929)

“God how I hate new countries: They are older than the old, more sophisticated, much more conceited, only young in a certain puerile vanity more like senility than anything.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)

“Marriage is the operation by which a woman’s vanity and a man’s egotism are extracted without an anaesthetic.”
—Helen Rowland (1875–1950)