“It is less mortifying to believe one's self unpopular than insignificant, and vanity prefers to assume that indifference is a latent form of unfriendliness.”

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It is less mortifying to believe one's self unpopular than insignificant, and vanity prefers to assume that indifferenc…" by Edith Wharton?
Edith Wharton photo
Edith Wharton 103
American novelist, short story writer, designer 1862–1937

Related quotes

Alexander von Humboldt photo

“The expression of vanity and self-love becomes less offensive, when it retains something of simplicity and frankness.”

Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) Prussian geographer, naturalist and explorer

Equinoctial Regions of America (1814-1829)

Dennis Lehane photo
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach photo

“Indifference of every kind is reprehensible, even indifference towards one’s self.”

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian writer

Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 82.

Norman Vincent Peale photo
James Hudson Taylor photo

“Self-denial surely means somethings far greater than some slight and insignificant lessening of our self-indulgences!”

James Hudson Taylor (1832–1905) Missionary in China

(J. Hudson Taylor. A Ribband of Blue and Other Bible Studies. London: China Inland Mission, n.d., 113).

William Winwood Reade photo
Sarah Orne Jewett photo

“It was mortifying to find how strong the habit of idle speech may become in one’s self. One need not always be saying something in this noisy world.”

Sarah Orne Jewett (1849–1909) American novelist, short story writer and poet

Source: The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories

John Eardley Wilmot photo

“Settlements are supposed in law to be indifferent to paupers; though they are often in fact desirous of one in preference to another.”

John Eardley Wilmot (1709–1792) English judge

Rex v. Inhabitants of Burton-Bradstock (1765), Burrow (Settlement Cases), 535.

“Without this ridiculous vanity that takes the form of self-display and is part of everything and everyone, we would see nothing, and nothing would exist.”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

Sin esa tonta vanidad que es el mostrarnos y que es de todos y de todo, no veríamos nada y no existiría nada. [[]]
Voces (1943)

Anatole France photo

“I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the wisdom of indifference.”

J'ai toujours préféré la folie des passions à la sagesse de l'indifférence.
Pt. II, ch. 4
The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881)
Variant: I prefer the errors of enthusiasm to the wisdom of indifference.

Related topics