self-approving

In this self-approving disposition, Annette sped up a narrow turnpike stair to a closet, or dressing-room, where her young mistress was seated, and exclaimed, with open mouth, — “Anne of Gei —, I mean my Lady Baroness, they are come — they are come!”

Anne of Geierstein 2008

… How offensive it is to hear some pert, self-approving personage, who thanks God that he is not as other men are, passing harsh sentence on his poor, hard-worked, heavily burdened fellow countrymen ….

Herbert Spencer Anti-Defamation League (Part 423 of ???) 2008

… How offensive it is to hear some pert, self-approving personage, who thanks God that he is not as other men are, passing harsh sentence on his poor, hard-worked, heavily burdened fellow countrymen ….

Rad Geek People’s Daily – 2008 – April – 02 2008

You cannot be unhappy, you have purchased peace by the exercise of virtue, and the close of every day will bring to you a reward, in the sweets of a self-approving mind. —

Cecilia 2008

Hitherto, though no stranger to sorrow, which the sickness and early loss of her friends had first taught her to feel, and which the subsequent anxiety of her own heart had since instructed her to bear, she had yet invariably possessed the consolation of self-approving reflections: but the step she was now about to take, all her principles opposed; it terrified her as undutiful, it shocked her as clandestine, and scarce was

Cecilia 2008

Wegman identified the narrow circle of self-supporting and self-approving climate researchers.

Survivor Season 8: the Hockey Team – the Mann Overboard Episode « Climate Audit 2006

‘Look here, Riah,’ said Fledgeby, mollified by these self-approving considerations.

Our Mutual Friend 2004

She was self-absorbed and self-approving because she had attained that quality of sentimentality.

Main Street 2004

At the door he left her, in self-approving haughtiness, and tramped the lawn.

Babbit 2004

Poor Jacob, not in the least comprehending the situation, and in high glee at finding himself so near the school, which he had never been allowed to enter, suddenly, in a fit of enthusiasm, pushed by Tom, and ambling three steps into the school, stood there, looking round him and nodding with a self-approving smile.

Tom Brown's Schooldays Hughes, Thomas, 1822-1896 1971