It is the utterly destructive quality. When you say vanity, you are thinking of the kind that admires itself in mirrors and buys things to deck itself out in. But that is merely personal conceit. Real vanity is something quite different. A matter not of person but of personality. Vanity says, "I must have this because I am me." It is a frightening thing because it is incurable.
Josephine TeyI expect this is what death is like when you meet it. Sort of wildly unfair but inevitable.
Josephine TeyA thousand people drowned in floods in China are news: a solitary child drowned in a pond is tragedy.
Josephine Tey