It seems that real vanity—the deep and unmistakable—leads to insincerity and hypocrisy, traits that I find unbearable, both in life and in art. It has already noticed the innocent face of several among the greatest artists of all times, such as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Shakespeare. And innocence, if it shows its face, does so only through sincerity, which is its obligatory companion. This is what we see, for example, in Nietzsche, when he says that Zarathustra is the greatest work ever conceived, or when he considers himself the greatest of all philosophers. Distorted by infamous tongues, he passed for presumptuous, when he limited himself to being transparent as he always was. Vanity manifests itself in hypocrisy. Nietzsche lived his work, Dostoevsky believed with all his mind in the solutions he proposed. Both submitted themselves to ridicule, exposed themselves. And they did not humiliate themselves, as those thirsty for recognition do, resorting to dissimulation.
Vanity Leads to Hypocrisy
