To this principle of vanity, which philosophers call a mean one, and which I do not, I owe a great part of the figure which I have made in life. – Lord Chesterfield
As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism. The beloved Echo of our ancestors, the virgin America, has been abandoned. We have fallen in love with our own image, with images of our making, which turn out to be images of ourselves. – Daniel J. Boorstin
Providence seldom vouchsafes to mortals any more than just that degree of encouragement which suffices to keep them at a reasonably full exertion of their powers. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
