Sam Harris

Spiritual life can certainly follow the pattern one sees in the fake martial arts, with most teachers making nebulous and magical claims that never get tested, while their students derange themselves with weird ideas, empty rituals, and other affectations.

American Author

Maya Angelou

I'm a religious woman. And I feel I have responsibility. I have no modesty at all. I'm even afraid of it - it's a learned affectation and it's just stuck on me like decals. Now I pray for humility because that comes from inside out.

American Poet

Zadie Smith

My life is black and white and mixed. My mother's a Rastafarian, my dad was a short white guy - it's not an affectation. It's also the lives of millions of people throughout the world.

British Novelist

John Ruskin

There is never vulgarity in a whole truth, however commonplace. It may be unimportant or painful. It cannot be vulgar. Vulgarity is only in concealment of truth, or in affectation.

English Writer

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

I can say without affectation that I belong to the Russian convict world no less than I do to Russian literature. I got my education there, and it will last forever.

Russian Author

Francesca Annis

I'm trying to learn to smoke, which is rather weird when everyone is trying to stop. I'm not a smoker. But my character only smokes as an affectation.

English Actress

Jean Baudrillard

Cowardice and courage are never without a measure of affectation. Nor is love. Feelings are never true. They play with their mirrors.

French Sociologist

Josh Billings

One of the best temporary cures for pride and affectation is seasickness; a man who wants to vomit never puts on airs.

American Comedian

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, else it is none.

American Philosopher

Jacques Barzun

Great cultural changes begin in affectation and end in routine.

American Educator

Affectation often points out a fake action done to look real and impress others.

Genuine vs Fake

Used to describe actions that people hope will make them look good in social situations.

Social Impressions

Usually has a negative tone, implying the person is being insincere.

Unfavorable Connotation

It implies making an effort to seem like someone they are not.

False Qualities

When someone's effort to pretend is obvious to others.

Transparent Effort

Affectation can also mean overdoing a behavior to make a certain impression.

Exaggerated Behavior

It refers to adopting specific habits or accents artificially.

Adopted Mannerisms

Sometimes used to show off cultural or intellectual capital that isn't naturally possessed.

Cultural Pretense

Can be used to hide one's true feelings or to create a false emotional appearance.

Emotional Mask

 and it's been tagged like crazy. Now whether you look at this and think, "Oh, that's a charming urban affectation," or you look at it and say, "That's illegal abuse of property," the one thing I think we can all agree on is that you cannot read it.