Quotes, aphorisms and phrases about ostentation, or about the act of showing immeasurably personal skills, riches, actions accomplished and lifestyle to impress others, tending to hide one's true being.
Quotes about ostentation
- Who lives aesthetically always lives only in the moment. (Soren Kierkegaard)
- Character is kindness without showing it off. (Paul Tournier)
- Artists are not only immature, they flaunt and use their immaturity as a dishonest alibi to defend themselves from criticism of their works. (Yukio Mishima)
- Proof of honesty is what you do when nobody is looking at you. (Denis Waitley)
- It seems very difficult to me to decide whether or not to talk about oneself long and by habit, or more rarely, a man exempt from this vice is more or less contrary to the first principles of custom. (Giacomo Leopardi)
- Speak properly, and with as few words as possible, but always in a simple way; because the aim of a speech is not ostentation, but being understood. (William Penn)
- The confession of our shortcomings is a thankless task. It tastes more of ostentation than sincerity and modesty. It seems as if we consider our weaknesses just as good as the virtues of others. (William Hazlitt)
- We are all impostors in this world, we all pretend to be something we are not. (Richard Bach)
- It is easy to pass for bright people by taking the sentences of other bright people. (Randy Pausch)
- Make sure your external appearance is a good reflected image of your internal appearance. (Jim Rohn)
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- It is easier to seem worthy of the positions you have than those you hold. (Francois De La Rochefoucauld)
- No one can, for a period that is not very short, wear one face to show to himself and another to show to all the others, without ultimately finding himself in the condition of not understanding what the real could be any more. (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
- It is not a fool who flaunts to be such, but he who really is. (Baltasar Gracian)
- The external aspect is a poor substitute for the internal value. (Aesop)
- Excesses are essentially deeds. It is easy to be extremely cruel, magnanimous, humble and selfless when we see ourselves as actors in a performance. (Eric Hoffer)
- Many of men prefer appearance rather than essence, moving away from the right. (Aeschylus)
- There are only two types of doctors: those who exercise with their brain and those who exercise with their language. (William Osler)
- The way to get a good reputation is to act to be what you want to appear. (Socrates)
- Real exhibitionism consists in showing what you don't have. (Stanislaw Jerzy Lec)
- Fashion is the science of appearance, which inspires with the desire to appear rather than to be. (George Bancroft)
- The miser becomes rich by showing that he is poor, while the prodigal becomes impoverished by showing that he is rich. (William Shenstone)
Aphorisms on ostentation
- We pay more attention to making others believe that we are happy than to really try to be happy. (Francois De La Rochefoucauld)
- In this world of ours, what you do doesn't matter, it matters what you can make people believe you have done. (Arthur Conan Doyle)
- Nobody complains with greater ostentation than those who rejoice most. (Publius Cornelius Tacitus)
- Vain is the glory of those who seek fame only in the glitter of words. (Francesco Petrarca)
- Few see how we are, but all see what we pretend to be. (Niccolo Machiavelli)
- Of all the good deeds, the most beautiful is undoubtedly that of hiding one's merits. (Alphonse Karr)
- Only superficial people do not judge by appearances. (Oscar Wilde)
- Do everything you can ostentatiously all the time. (George Smith Patton)
- We would earn more by showing ourselves what we are than by trying to appear what we are not. (Francois De La Rochefoucauld)
- Mostly men are better at doing big things than good ones. (Montesquieu)
- To me hateful, like the gates of Hades, it is the man who conceals one thing in his bosom and says another. (Homer)
- Nowadays, the so-called intelligent people do nothing but flaunt wisdom to confuse people with their wares.Thus, they are inferior to simple people; these, in fact, are sincere and spontaneous. (Yamamoto Tsunetomo)
- Trying to seem what we are not, we cease to be what we are. (Ernst Junger)
- He who writes affectionately resembles the one who gets dressed up so as not to be mistaken and confused with the vulgar; this is a danger that the gentleman never runs, even if he wears the poorest suit. (Arthur Schopenhauer)
- Do not judge men by their pure appearance; because the light laughter that foams on the lips often cloaks the depths of sadness, and the serious look can be the sober veil that covers a divine peace and joy. (Harry Forster Chapin)
- As poets love their works and fathers their children, so too those who have enriched themselves take care of their possessions because it is their work, as well as, like the others, for the usefulness they derive from them. So their company is harassing, since they are not willing to praise anything but wealth. (Plato)
- I prefer to be hated for who I am rather than to be loved for who I am not. (Kurt Cobain)
- It is a great relief not to be forced to manifest qualities that are not possessed. (Agatha Christie)
- Because there is still someone who appreciates you for who you are and not for how you must be. (Johnny Depp)
- For most wealthy people, the main pleasure of wealth is to show it off. (Adam Smith)
- Have more than you show, speak less than you know. (William Shakespeare)
Phrases about ostentation
- Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like. (Will Smith)
- Very few people read Newton, because you have to be learned to understand it. But everyone is talking about it. (Voltaire)
- Each of us falls in love spontaneously, but very few people with a generous heart to love without being encouraged. In nine out of ten cases, a woman should show even more affection than she feels. (Jane Austen)
- People who show their injuries have never been seriously injured. (Kees Buddingh)
- What is given with pride and ostentation depends more on ambition than generosity. (Lucio Anneo Seneca)
- True intelligence masks itself. To flaunt is already to discover, to discover is to make vulnerable. (Leunam Aeport)
- Time does not stop to admire the glory: it uses it and goes on. (Chateaubriand)
- For most wealthy people, the main pleasure of wealth is to show it off. (Adam Smith)
- Nobody complains with greater ostentation than those who rejoice most. (Publius Cornelius Tacitus)
- If I also think of many faithful of our Sunday masses, who compete to make an act of presence at the rites and parish initiatives only to "be seen", for the pure sake of self-affirmation or for the exercise of a power that does not they managed to get nowhere else. (Don Andrea Gallo)
- Charity that hastens to proclaim its good intentions ceases to be charity, and is only pride and ostentation. (William Hutton)
- You are never so ridiculous for the qualities you have as for those you show off to have. (François de La Rochefoucauld)
- Generally it is more useful to deal with our shortcomings than to show off what we have managed to do. (Thomas Carlyle)
- Whenever we start thinking we are the center of the universe, the universe turns and says with a slightly distracted air: "I'm sorry. Can you repeat your name again? (Margaret Maron)
- Men stand out from what they show and look alike in what they hide. (Paul Valéry)
- Charity that hastens to proclaim its good intentions ceases to be charity, and is only pride and ostentation. (William Hutton)
- If people feel the need to tell you how successful they are, they are not successful people at all. (Jon Bon Jovi)
- To flaunt and be seen ... What cannot be seen does not exist. (Baltasar Graciàn)
- The rich: you see well what they have, you don't see what they lack. (St. Augustine)
- Our world is made only for ostentation: men swell only with wind, and move in leaps and bounds, like balloons. (Michel De Montaigne)
- To flaunt and be seen, what cannot be seen does not exist, light has made creation shine. Fill in the gaps, the spaces left empty and create a second chance, especially if accompanied by genuine merit. (Baltasar Gracian)
