A coxcomb is the blockhead's man of merit. [ La Bruyere ]
A coxcomb is four-fifths affectation and one-fifth vanity. [ Haliburton ]
A coxcomb is ugly all over with the affectation of the fine gentleman. [ Dr. Johnson ]
Nature has sometimes made a fool; but a coxcomb is always of a man's own making. [ Addison ]
It is always easy to shut a book, but not quite so easy to get rid of a lettered coxcomb. [ Colton ]
A man of sense and gravity is less apt to succeed with a fine woman than the gay, the giddy, the flattering coxcomb. [ Henry Home ]
All the world says of a coxcomb that he is a coxcomb; but no one dares to say so to his face, and he dies without knowing it. [ Bruyfere ]
None are so seldom found alone, and are so soon tired of their own company, as those coxcombs who are on the best terms with themselves. [ Colton ]
A coxcomb begins by determining that his own profession is the first; and he finishes by deciding that he is the first of his profession. [ Colton ]
Foppery is never cured; it is the bad stamina of the mind, which, like those of the body, are never rectified; once a coxcomb, always a coxcomb. [ Johnson ]
A vulgar man is captious and jealous; eager and impetuous about trifles. He suspects himself to be slighted, and thinks everything that is said meant at him. [ Chesterfield ]
There are two distinct sorts of what we call bashfulness; this, the awkwardness of a booby, which a few steps into the world will convert into the pertness of a coxcomb; that, a consciousness, which the most delicate feelings produce, and the most extensive knowledge cannot always remove. [ Mackenzie ]
This is he that kiss'd away his hand in courtesy; This is the ape of form, monsieur the nice. That when he plays at tables, chides the dice in honorable terms; nay, he can sing a mean most meanly; and in ushering, mend him who can; the ladies call him sweet; The stairs, as he treads on them, kiss his feet. [ William Shakespeare ]