The offspring of riches: Pride, vanity, ostentation, arrogance, tyranny
What is the vanity of the vainest man compared with the vanity which the most modest possesses when, in the midst of nature and the world, he feels himself to be man!
We are slaves in the hands of nature - slaves to a bit of bread, slaves to praise, slaves to blame, slaves to wife, to husband, to child, slaves to everything.
There are two kinds of Riya - Showing off-Ostentation ie pure ostentation and adulterated ostention. In pure ostentation "Riya" a man does a good deed only for worldly benefit. In Adulterated ostentation, a man does a good deed with the intention of reaping the benefits of the world as well as of the Hereafter.
The truth is that economic competition is the very opposite of competition in the animal kingdom. It is not a competition in the grabbing off of scarce nature-given supplies, as it is in the animal kingdom. Rather, it is a competition in the positive creation of new and additional wealth.
Fashion for the most part is nothing but the ostentation of riches.
Men pursue riches under the idea that their possession will set them at ease, and above the world. But the law of association often makes those who begin by loving gold as a servant finish by becoming themselves its slaves; and independence without wealth is at least as common as wealth without independence.
Human beings do not wish to be modest; they want to be as expressive - that is, as immodest - as fear allows; fashion helps them solve that paradoxical problem.
Life without hope, the slavery of mankind-a bondage so hopeless that slaves will no longer know they are slaves. Wealth without happiness, abundance without the power to enjoy it. The death of the spirit.
After retiring from competition in 1981, I did exhibitions and coached.
Fashion is the abortive issue of vain ostentation and exclusive egotism ... tied to no rule, and bound to conform to every whim of the minute.
There is always more goodness in the world than there appears to be, because goodness is of its very nature modest and retiring.
The vanity of loving fine clothes and new fashion, and placing value on ourselves by them is one of the most childish pieces of folly.
Don't hoard your wealth. Instead, live the life you want with the wealth you have been blessed with, but also make it beneficial for the good of the larger community.
It generally takes its rise either from an ill-will to mankind, a private inclination to make ourselves esteemed, an ostentation of wit, and vanity of being thought in the secrets of the world; or from a desire of gratifying any of these dispositions of mind in those persons with whom we converse.
A brushstroke of vanity is good to add into the mix, to balance your timidity. We're all blessed with a lot of timidity and a lot of worry and anxiety, and vanity is a good antidote.