Boasting

Sunday, June 21, 2009 – Boasting

When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: “Whose?” ~ Don Marquis

Delusions of grandeur make me feel a lot better about myself. ~ Jane Wagner

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal. ~ Oscar Wilde

I am no more humble than my talents require. ~ Oscar Levant

Intolerance is the most socially acceptable form of egotism, for it permits us to assume superiority without personal boasting. ~ Sydney J. Harris

Pride in boasting of family antiquity, makes duration stand for merit. ~ John Zimmerman

The deepest thing in any one is the conviction of the bad luck that follows boasting. ~ Gertrude Stein

We should face reality and our past mistakes in an honest, adult way. Boasting of glory does not make glory, and singing in the dark does not dispel fear. ~ King Hussein

When boasting ends, there dignity begins. ~ Owen D. Young

Criticism is an indirect form of self-boasting. ~ Emmet Fox

Our attitude toward our own culture has recently been characterized by two qualities, braggadocio and petulance. Braggadocio – empty boasting of American power, American virtue, American know-how – has dominated our foreign relations now for some decades. Here at home – within the family, so to speak – our attitude to our culture expresses a superficially different spirit, the spirit of petulance. Never before, perhaps, has a culture been so fragmented into groups, each full of its own virtue, each annoyed and irritated at the others. ~ Daniel J. Boorstin

It has become almost a cliche to remark that nobody boasts of ignorance of literature, but it is socially acceptable to boast ignorance of science and proudly claim incompetence in mathematics. ~ Richard Dawkins

We often credit ourselves with vices the reverse of what we have, thus when weak we boast of our obstinacy. ~ François de la Rochefoucauld

It is something – it can be everything – to have found a fellow bird with whom you can sit among the rafters while the drinking and boasting and reciting and fighting go on below. ~ Wallace Stegner

What a devil of a bore it must be to be the superior person! – those mental anaemics who never read about murders, divorces, or whatever the special squeamishness may be to which they pin their vanity – as grotesque as going to the play and boasting. ~ Alice James

Boast is always a cry of despair, except in the young it is a cry of hope. ~ Bernard Berenson

There is this benefit in brag, that the speaker is unconsciously expressing his own ideal. Humor him by all means, draw it all out, and hold him to it. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Where there is much pretension, much has been borrowed; nature never pretends. ~ Johann Kaspar Lavater

Fools carry their daggers in their open mouths. ~ Josh Billings

The honor is overpaid when he that did the act is commentator. ~ James Shirley

Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she had laid an asteroid. ~ Mark Twain, Following the Equator, Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar

Commonly they use their feet for defence, whose tongue is their weapon. ~ Sir Philip Sidney

If a fox is unable to befriend a tiger, then the fox should create an illusion of close association with the tiger by carefully trailing behind the cat while boasting of the deep friendship they share. In this way, he creates an impression that his well being is of great concern to the tiger. ~ Chin-Ning Chu

Boast quietly, with decorum. ~ Mason Cooley

If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself. ~ Henry David Thoreau

We boast our emancipation from many superstitions; but if we have broken any idols, it is through a transfer of idolatry. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

We need two kinds of acquaintances, one to complain to, while to the others we boast. ~ Logan Pearsall Smith

If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance. ~ Bern Williams

Let your actions always speak for you, but be forever on guard against the terrible traps of false pride and conceit that can halt your progress. The next time you are tempted to boast, just place your fist in a full pail of water, and when you remove it, the hole remaining will give you a correct measure of your importance. ~ Og Mandino

A true history of human events would show that a far larger proportion of our acts are the result of sudden impulse and accident than of that reason of which we so much boast. ~ Peter Cooper

Every Man has Assurance enough to boast of his honesty, few of their Understanding. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast. ~ Jane Austen

We are not saints, but we have kept our appointment. How many people can boast as much? ~ Samuel Beckett

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. ~ Sir Winston Churchill

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