Category: VAINGLORY

  • A man who craves esteem cannot be rid of the causes of grief.

    —St. Isaac the Syrian

  • And a Ferrari owner is not shallow and greedy, but animated by a poignant need for love.

    Bittersweet
    Susan Cain

  • Be simple, and firm in your simplicity. “The fashion of this world passeth away.” (1 Cor. vii. 31.) We shall vanish with it, if we make ourselves like it by reason of vanity; but the truth of God remains forever, and we shall dwell with it if it alone occupies our attention.

    —François Fénelon, Spiritual Progress

  • “So the messages we hear, exhorting us to build up our self-esteem, are correct, but they go astray when they tell us to do so through an unbridled self-pampering, especially through unchecked consumerism.”

    How to Be a Sinner
    Peter Bouteneff

  • If you have experienced peer rejection, conflict or belong to an unsupportive family, you might rely on objects more than yourself or other people. You might view objects as more remarkable than your own personal qualities, and they may seem more readily available than supportive friends or relatives.

    How to have less stuff

  • “The virtuous man involuntarily attracts everyone’s attention.”

    —St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ

  • CHAPTER IV: How vainglory attacks a monk on the right had and on the left. For where the devil cannot create vainglory in a man by means of his well-fitting and neat dress, he tries to introduce it by means of a dirty, cheap, and uncared-for style. If he cannot drag a man down by honour, he overthrows him by humility. If he cannot make him puffed up by the grace of knowledge and eloquence, he pulls him down by the weight of silence. If a man fasts openly, he is attacked by the pride of vanity.

    John Cassian, Institutes

  • But how unhappy are those poor, weak souls, who are divided between God and the world! They will and they do not will; they are lacerated at once by their passions and their remorse; they are afraid of the judgments of God and of the opinions of men; they dislike the evil, but are ashamed of the good.

    —Francois Fenelon, Spiritual Progress

  • Because they understood vainglory to be a recurrent and serious problem, the early Fathers recommended several practical strategies against it—most of which did not involve sneaking off and slandering yourself before city officials. For example, you could try to avoid excessive attachment to glory by avoiding any attachments to human opinion at all. So one Desert Father offers this advice on how to make “death to the world” one’s spiritual vocation: A brother came to see Abba Macarius the Egyptian, and said to him, “Abba, give me a word.” So the old man said, “Go to the cemetery and abuse the dead.” The brother went there, abused them and threw stones at them; then he returned and told the old man about it. The latter said to him, “Didn’t they say anything to you?” He replied, “No.” The old man said, “Go back tomorrow and praise them.” So the brother went away and praised them, calling them “Apostles, saints, and righteous men.” He returned to the old man and said to him, “I have complimented them.” And the old man said to him, “Did they not answer you?” The brother said no. The old man said to him, “You know how you insulted them and they did not reply, and how you praised them and they did not speak; so you too if you wish to be saved must do the same and become a dead man. Like the dead, take no account of either the scorn of men or their praises.”

    —Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, Vainglory: The Forgotten Vice

  • “When you see someone crying over the many insults he has received, you should know that, because he was overcome by vainglory, he is now unknowingly reaping the crop of evils in his heart. He who loves pleasure is grieved by accusations and abuse. On the other hand, he who loves God is grieved by praises and other superfluous remarks. The degree of our humility is measured by slander. Don’t think that you have humility when you cannot forbear even the slightest accusation.”

    — Abba Mark