Vain Quotes · Page 14

The life of man is but a succession of vain hopes and groundless fears.

— Baron de Montesquieu

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

— Herman Melville

For this I see, that we, all we that live, Are but vain shadows, unsubstantial dreams.

— Sophocles

The German Army is tired. The vain effort to defeat Russia's armies has used up its equipment and reduced its morale.

— Walther von Brauchitsch

Live for yourself and you will live in vain; Live for others, and you will live again.

— Anonymous

A vain man finds his account in speaking good or evil of himself.

— Jean de la Bruyere

Christ could be born a thousand times in Bethlehem - but all in vain until He is born in me.

— Angelus Silesius

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

— Lady Hester Stanhope

“Who says I’m vain?” “The comparison: your friend isn’t. But I’m sorry for her, vanity is a resource. If you’re vain you…

— Elena Ferrante

“You don’t love people for what they can give you. You don’t love them because of what they do for you or…

— Shelly Crane

The soul is made for action, and cannot rest till it be employed. Idleness is its rust. Unless it will up and…

— Anonymous

Forsooth, I no longer toil in vain, To prove that demon pox warps the brain. So though 'ti pity, it's not in…

— Cassandra Clare

If morality had naturally no influence on human passions and actions, it were in vain to take such pains to inculcate it;…

— David Hume

SIREN, n. One of several musical prodigies famous for a vain attempt to dissuade Odysseus from a life on the ocean wave.…

— Ambrose Bierce

Unless man is committed to the belief that all mankind are his brothers, then he labors in vain and hypocritically in the…

— Anonymous

I am not prone to weeping as our sex commonly are; the want of which vain dew perchance shall dry your pities;…

— William Shakespeare

Let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign…

— Dwight D. Eisenhower

All our progress is an unfolding, like the vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge, as…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Did any of you, parents, ever hear your child wake from sleep with some panic fear and shriek the mother's name through…

— Alexander MacLaren

“I lay down on the bed clasping the pictures and buried my face in the pillow in a vain attempt at silencing…

— Linda Olsson

Friendship is a serious affection; the most sublime of all affections, because it is founded on principle, and cemented by time. The…

— Mary Wollstonecraft

I am telling you before anything, that the blood of the martyrs and the injured will not go in vain. And I…

— Hosni Mubarak

Religious doctrines would do well to withdraw their pretension to be dealing with matters of fact. That pretension is not only the…

— George Santayana

I fear that, as conditions worsen, many will react to the failures of too much government by calling for even more government.…

— Neal A. Maxwell

Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff. I have been called all of these. Of course, I am.

— Howard Cosell

[The] vain and transitory scenes of human greatness are unworthy of a serious thought.

— Edward Gibbon

And I never believed that the multitude / of dreams and many words were vain.

— Li-Young Lee

I'm too vain, one of my biggest sins, but it saved me; I can see what excess does.

— Grace Jones

If a man's religion does not affect his use of money, that man's religion is vain.

— Hugh Martin

Spangling the wave with lights as vain As pleasures in the vale of pain, That dazzle as they fade.

— Walter Scott

It is vain to complain of fortune while we fail in policy and conduct.

— Norm MacDonald

We never think of the main business of life till a vain repentance minds us of it at the wrong end.

— Roger L'Estrange

People who are very vain are usually equally susceptible; and they who feel one thing acutely, will so feel another.

— Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Complaining is a vain way of explaining pain without gaining relief. Keep complains distances away from you.

— Israelmore Ayivor

When the vain speaker has sat down, and the people say 'what a good speech,' it still takes an ounce to balance…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

In vain our labours are, whatsoe'er they be, unless God gives the Benediction.

— Robert Herrick

A word of kindness is seldom spoken in vain. It can be and is often treasured by the recipient for life.

— George D. Prentice

He who knows himself well is mean and abject in his own sight, and takes no delight in the vain praise of…

— Thomas a Kempis

In outward show so splendid and so vain; 'tis but a gilded block without a brain.

— Phaedrus

The finest opportunity ever given to the world was thrown away because the passion of equality made vain the hope for freedom.

— Lord Acton