Pretension.—­It is worth noticing that those who assume an imposing demeanor and seek to pass themselves off for something beyond what they are, are not unfrequently as much underrated by some as overrated by others.—­Whately.

Where there is much pretension, much has been borrowed:  nature never pretends.—­Lavater.

When you see a man with a great deal of religion displayed in his shop window, you may depend upon it he keeps a very small stock of it within.—­Spurgeon.

True glory strikes root, and even extends itself; all false pretensions fall as do flowers, nor can anything feigned be lasting.—­Cicero.

It is no disgrace not to be able to do everything; but to undertake, or pretend to do, what you are not made for, is not only shameful, but extremely troublesome and vexatious.—­Plutarch.

He who gives himself airs of importance, exhibits the credentials of impotence.—­Lavater.

The desire of appearing clever often prevents our becoming so.  —­La ROCHEFOUCAULD.

The more honesty a man has, the less he affects the air of a saint.  —­Lavater.

Pride.—­Without the sovereign influence of God’s extraordinary and immediate grace, men do very rarely put off all the trappings of their pride, till they who are about them put on their winding-sheet.  —­Clarendon.

Pride and weakness are Siamese twins.—­Lowell.

Of all the causes that conspire to blind
Man’s erring judgment, and misguide the mind,
What the weak head with strongest bias rules,
Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools. 

          
                          —­Pope.

It is hardly possible to overvalue ourselves but by undervaluing our neighbors.—­Clarendon.

The sin of pride is the sin of sins; in which all subsequent sins are included, as in their germ; they are but the unfolding of this one.  —­Archbishop Trench.

Some people are proud of their humility.—­Beecher.

Pride requires very costly food—­its keeper’s happiness.—­Colton.

Pride, of all others the most dangerous fault,
Proceeds from want of sense, or want of thought. 
—­Roscommon.

If a man has a right to be proud of anything, it is of a good action done as it ought to be, without any base interest lurking at the bottom of it.—­Sterne.

There is this paradox in pride,—­it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from becoming so.—­Colton.

In reality, there is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride.  Disguise it, struggle with it, stifle it, mortify it as much as you please, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself.—­Franklin.

Men say, “By pride the angels fell from heaven.”  By pride they reached a place from which they fell!—­Joaquin Miller.