| In the public sphere, it became a criticism, denoting an excessive egoism and pettiness that precluded a consideration of the greater good. |
| Like many modern Irish writers, Beckett resented the pettiness, prejudice and prudery of his country of birth. |
| But his vanity, pettiness and egocentrism exasperated even his closest friends. |
| We all experience times of feeling mightily right and dismissing dissent as small-minded pettiness. |
| An intermittent pettiness about where throw-ins and free kicks are taken from that defies logic is to be expected. |
| Too bad his son inherited his mother's virtues of pettiness and badger-like meanness. |
