“I know this in mankind, that when our ambition is unable to attain its end, it is not only wearied, but exasperated too at the vanity of its labours; then we speak ill of happier studies, and, sighing, condemn the excellence which we find above our reach.”

Failed ambition turns into dispraise of what it cannot match · Letter to Alexander Pope, 27 June 1715

• Ambition
• Envy
• Excellence

“What would you have otherwise from ignorance, envy, or those tempers which vie with you in your own way?”

Rivals and the unlearned are expected to resist a rising reputation · Letter to Alexander Pope, 27 June 1715

• Ambition
• Criticism
• Envy

“I fancy, if I were with you, I could remove some of the uneasiness which you may have felt from the opposition of the world, and which you should be ashamed to feel, since it is but the testimony which one part of it gives you, that your merit is unquestionable.”

Envy is recast as unwilling proof of excellence · Letter to Alexander Pope, 27 June 1715

• Envy
• Friendship
• Merit

“I am writing to you a long letter, but all the tediousness I feel in it is, that it makes me during the time think more intently of my being far from you.”

Absence is felt most sharply while writing to a friend · Letter to Alexander Pope, 27 June 1715

• Absence
• Friendship
• Letters

“My dream has given me occasion all my life to reflect upon the fatal consequences of following the suggestions of Vanity.”

The vision ends as a standing warning against self-display · The Spectator, No. 460, 18 August 1712

• Consequences
• Reflection
• Vanity

“Mankind is thus managed by the breath of Opinion, deluded by Errour, fired by Self-Conceit, and given up to be trained in all the courses of Vanity, till Scorn or Poverty come upon us.”

A chain from public opinion to eventual disgrace · The Spectator, No. 460, 18 August 1712

• Pride
• Public Opinion
• Vanity

“There is something so amusing for the time in this state of vanity and ill-grounded satisfaction, that even the wiser world has chosen an exalted word to describe its enchantments, and called it the Paradise of Fools.”

Vanity is treated as a pleasant trance rather than a vice · The Spectator, No. 460, 18 August 1712

• Folly
• Satisfaction
• Vanity

“This makes us easy in the midst of them, fond to shew them, fond to improve in them, and to be esteemed for them.”

We not only miss our faults but parade them as accomplishments · The Spectator, No. 460, 18 August 1712

• Pride
• Self Deception
• Vanity

“Our defects and follies are too often unknown to us; nay, they are so far from being known to us, that they pass for demonstrations of our worth.”

Self-love turns our faults into badges of merit · The Spectator, No. 460, 18 August 1712

• Folly
• Self Knowledge
• Vanity