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
To say that a man is vain means merely that he is pleased with the effect he produces on other people. A conceited man is satisfied with the effect he produces on himself. – Max Beerbohm
Metaphysics may be, after all, only the art of being sure of something that is not so, and logic only the art of going wrong with confidence. – Joseph Wood Krutch, The Modern Temper, 1929 (Thanks, Jeff)
