Vanity Undressed
Vanity (compare Pride) is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others.
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In some religious teachings vanity is considered a form of self-idolatry, in which one rejects God for sake of their own image, and thereby becomes separated from the graces of God. The stories of Lucifer and Narcissus, and others, relate the dangers of prideful vanity.
Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that "vanity is the fear of appearing original: it is thus a lack of pride, but not necessarily a lack of originality."[http://www.bartleby.com/66/51/41651.html] One of Mason Cooley|Mason Cooley's aphorisms is "Vanity well fed is benevolent. Vanity hungry is spiteful."[http://www.bartleby.com/66/44/14144.html]
