Appearance (n.) is hard work. If one were to take as much pains to be what one ought, as one does to deceive others by disguising what one is... one might appear as one is without being at the trouble of any disguise.
Appearance (n.) is rewarded. The appearances of goodness and merit often meet with a greater reward from the world than goodness and merit themselves.
Appearance (n.) is an obstacle to being. The desire to seem clever often keeps us from being so.
Appearance (n.) is self-defeating. The qualities we have do not make us so ridiculous as those which we affect to have.
Appearance (n.) is the nature of the social world, which is merely composed of actors. For in all aspects of life, each of us takes on a part and an appearance to seem to be what we wish to be.
Appearance (n.) is a necessary prerequisite to success. To establish oneself in the world, one does all one can to seem established there already.
Appearance (n.) is destructive. Truth does less good in the world than its appearances do harm.
Appearance (n.) is corrosive to the self. We get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves.
Appearance (n.) is an unnecessary ruse. We would gain more by letting the world see what we are than by trying to seem what we are not.