Understanding Human Natureby Parker on TwosAn individual loses his sense of reality because he loses his connection with life, being always occupied with the question of what other people think about him, and being concerned chiefly with the impression that he makes. The freedom of his action is inhibited to an extraordinary degree through this style of life, and his most obvious character trait becomes vanityVanity leads an individual to all kinds of useless work and effort which is more concerned with the semblance of things than with their essence, and beside the fact that it causes him to think constantly of himself, or at the most only of other people’s opinion of him, it’s greatest danger is that it leads him soon or later to lose contact with realityIn life it makes little difference who is right and who is wrong, since the only thing which counts is the accomplishment of one’s purpose, and the contribution to the lives of othersIn an age like ours which demands so much cooperation, there is no longer place for the strivings of personal vanity