Vanity is the natural weakness of an ambitious man, which exposes him to the secret scorn and derision of those he converses with, and ruins the character he is so industrious to advance by it.

Vanity defeats its own purpose, and does it in public. The effort to be thought well of is visible to everyone except the person making it, and what they see is exactly the neediness the performance was meant to hide. The reputation being built gets spent faster than it accumulates. Ambition is not the problem, the anxious display attached to it is.

Watch for the moment in conversation when you steer things toward your own credit. Let one of those moments pass this week without taking it, and notice that nothing is actually lost.