Vain Quotes

I'm not so vain as to believe that my involvement changes anything whatsoever.

Whatever you do for the sole purpose of having others admire you, your efforts will most likely be in vain.

Nature has made nothing in vain.

In vain he seeketh others to suppress, Who hath not learn'd himself first to subdue.

When I am dead, no pageant train shall waste their sorrows at my bier. Nor worthless pomp of homage vain stain it with hypocritic tear.

Natural wealth is limited and easily obtained; the wealth defined by vain fancies is always beyond reach.

Against fortune the carter cracks his whip in vain. [Fr., Centre fortune, la diverse un chartier rompit nazardes son fouet.]

Poetry, it is often said and loudly so, is life's true mirror. But a monkey looking into a work of literature looks in vain for Socrates.

Either fraternity is spontaneous, or it does not exist. To decree it is to annihilate it. The law can indeed force men to remain just; in vain would it try to force them to be self-sacrificing.

Against stupidity, God Himself fights in vain.

Not in vain has Lincoln lived, for he has helped to make this republic an example of justice, with no caste but the caste of humanity.

It is in vain to hope to please all alike. Let a man stand with his face in what direction he will, he must necessarily turn his back on one half of the world.

His golden locks Time hath to silver turned, O time too swift! O swiftness never ceasing! His youth 'gainst Time and Age hath ever spurned, But spurned in vain! Youth waneth by increasing.

He who lives in despair / takes and gives in vain.

As we get used to women in power, we are likely to discover that they behave much like powerful men - vain, entitled, always looking for more.

While Thee I seek, protecting Power, Be my vain wishes stilled; And may this consecrated hour With better hopes be filled.

The severity of penalties is only a vain resource, invented by little minds in order to substitute terror for that respect which they have no means of obtaining.

It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves. There is none such.

Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll! Ten thousand blubber-hunters sweep over thee in vain.

I am inclined to think that one's education has been in vain if one fails to learn that most schoolmasters are idiots.

Not vain the weakest, if their force unite.

All false art, all vain wisdom, lasts its time but finally destroys itself, and its highest culture is also the epoch of its decay.

Do not waste this life in vain pursuits.

As a man may be eating all day, and for want of digestion is never nourished, so these endless readers may cram themselves in vain with intellectual food.

It is better to understand a part of truth and apply it to our lives than to understand nothing at all and flounder helplessly in a vain attempt to pierce the mystery of existence.

The highest reach of a news-writer is an empty Reasoning on Policy, and vain Conjectures on the public Management.

I think the question that nobody wanted to deal with is the question they're posing: did my kid die in vain? Because the answer is too awful.

A vain man can never be utterly ruthless: he wants to win applause and therefore he accommodates himself to others

A vain man can never be altogether rude. Desirous as he is of pleasing, he fashions his manners after those of others.

What reason would grope for in vain, spontaneous impulse ofttimes achieves at a stroke, with light and pleasureful guidance.

How happy the lover, How easy his chain, How pleasing his pain, How sweet to discover He sighs not in vain.

What, start at this! when sixty years have spread. Their grey experience o'er thy hoary head? Is this the all observing age could gain? Or hast thou known the world so long in vain?

These are the effects of doting age,--vain doubts and idle cares and over caution.

Hence, all you vain delights, As short as are the nights Wherein you spend your folly! There's naught in this life sweet But only melancholy; O sweetest melancholy!

Who talks much, must talk in vain.

Why is the hearse with scutcheons blazon'd round, And with the nodding plume of ostrich crown'd? No; the dead know it not, nor profit gain; It only serves to prove the living vain.

Few can believe that suffering, especially by others, is in vain. Anything that is disagreeable must surely have beneficial economic effects.

Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy.

In vain doth valour bleed, While Avarice and Rapine share the land.

He who tempts, though in vain, at last asperses The tempted with dishonor foul, supposed Not incorruptible of faith, not proof Against temptation.

Men don't and can't live by exchanging articles, but by producing them. They don't live by trade, but by work. Give up that foolish and vain title of Trades Unions; and take that of laborers Unions.

If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.

It would be next to impossible to discover a handsome woman who was not also a vain woman.

It is vain for painters... to endeavour to invent without materials on which the mind may work.

All our efforts to defeat poverty and pursue sustainable development will be in vain if environmental degradation and natural resource depletion continue unabated.

One good thing about TV is, if you die violently, God forbid, on camera, you will not have died in vain because you will be great entertainment.

A glamorous life is quite different to a life of luxury. I don’t need luxury. For years, I was practically broke but I was still very vain and glamorous. And I still am.

Nature forms us in a certain manner, both inwardly and outwardly, and it is in vain to attempt to alter it.

Few things surpass old wine; and they may preach Who please, the more because they preach in vain

Nothing so soothes our vanity as a display of greater vanity in others; it makes us vain, in fact, of our modesty.