Michel de Montaigne Quotes

Kindness is weak when you use it in a self-serving manner. Self-serving kindness is thin - people can see right through it when a kind leader has an agenda.

The person who talks most of his own virtue is often the least virtuous.

He that would have his virtue published, is not the servant of virtue, but glory.

It is a fault, not a virtue, to wish your humility recognized and applauded.

There is no act, however virtuous, for which ingenuity may not find some bad motive.

Vanity is normal in performers. Does it bother other people? All the time. But nine times out of 10, that says more about them than you.

I'm an entertainer. I don't go round saying I'm a paragon of virtue, so that is clearly not in the public interest.

Trying to be fascinating is an asinine position to be in.

That Man indeed can never be good at heart, who is full of himself and his own Endowments.

Whatever you do for the sole purpose of having others admire you, your efforts will most likely be in vain.

You can't control how you are perceived, and you are a fool if you waste any energy trying to do so. Vanity will get you nowhere.

This is a very superficial job. I sit in a chair for two hours and get hair and makeup done and talk about myself in interviews. That's a very vain thing to do. And I do get caught up in it sometimes.

We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.

Let a man rise to power, and he has as many virtues as will furnish an epitaph. Let him fall from power, and he has more vices than the Prodigal Son.

Those are most desirous of honor and glory who cry out the loudest of its abuse and the vanity of the world.

Everybody has an agenda.

Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth

I'm definitely a narcissist, and TV is fabulous for narcissists.

I think that some people get wrapped up in their own egos. They need to see certain album sales and certain monuments.

I don't like seeking all the attention. When you start doing stuff like that, it gets into your head, you are not being yourself.

You'd be surprised at the things people will do in order to get their names or pictures in the paper.

The love of admiration leads to fraud, much more than the love of commendation; but, on the other hand, the latter is much more likely to spoil our: good actions by the substitution of an inferior motive.

Every other enjoyment malice may destroy; every other panegyric envy may withhold; but no human power can deprive the boaster of his own encomiums.

We think that we are generous because we credit our neighbor with those virtues that are likely to benefit ourselves. We praise the banker that we may overdraw our account, and find good qualities in the highwayman in the hope that he may spare our pockets.

Villainy wears many masks; none so dangerous as the mask of virtue.