How good it is when you have roast meat or suchlike foods before you, to impress on your mind that this is the dead body of a fish, this is the dead body of a bird or pig; and again, that the Falernian wine is the mere juice of grapes, and your purple edged robe simply the hair of a sheep soaked in shell-fish blood! And in sexual intercourse that it is no more than the friction of a membrane and a spurt of mucus ejected. How good these perceptions are at getting to the heart of the real thing and penetrating through it, so you can see it for what it is! This should be your practice throughout all your life: when things have such a plausible appearance, show them naked, see their shoddiness, strip away their own boastful account of themselves. Vanity is the greatest seducer of reason: when you are most convinced that your work is important, that is when you are most under its spell. Marcus Aurelius
About This Quote

There are three ways in which people are prone to vanity. The first is when people are so overwhelmed by their own appearance that they are not able to see the flaws in other people. The second reason is when people are so absorbed in their own achievements that they are no longer able to appreciate other people’s achievements. The third reason is when people have a high opinion of themselves and they cannot see things from other perspectives.

Some Similar Quotes
  1. You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. - Dr. Seuss
  2. When someone loves you, the way they talk about you is different. You feel safe and comfortable. - Jess C. Scott
  3. I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. <span style="margin:15px;... - Neil Gaiman
  4. We have to allow ourselves to be loved by the people who really love us, the people who really matter. Too much of the time, we are blinded by our own pursuits of people to love us, people that don't even matter, while all that... - C. Joybell C.
  5. Nothing in this world was more difficult than love. - Unknown
More Quotes By Marcus Aurelius
  1. Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.
  2. Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.
  3. When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...
  4. Our life is what our thoughts make it.
  5. The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
Related Topics