Vain Quotes - Page 18

• Nature makes nothing incomplete, and nothing in vain.

  Aristotle

  Nature, Incomplete

  Politics bk. 1, 1256b

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• Man in sooth is a marvellous, vain, fickle, and unstable subject.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Men, Fickle, Unstable

  Michel de Montaigne (1853). “The Works of Michael de Montaigne: Comprising His Essays, Letters, and Journey Through Germany and Italy. With Notes from All the Commentators, Biographical and Bibliographical Notices &c., &c”, p.2

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• It is vain to look for a defense against lightning.

  Publilius Syrus

  Lightning, Defense, Looks

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• A vain man is a nauseous creature: he is so full of himself that he has no room for anything else, be it never so good or deserving.

  William Penn

  Men, Vanity, Rooms

  William Penn (1726). “A Collection of the Works of William Penn: To which is Prefixed a Journal of His Life, with Many Original Letters and Papers Not Before Published”, p.855

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• But deepest of all illusory Appearances, for hiding Wonder, as for many other ends, are your two grand fundamental world-enveloping Appearances, SPACE and TIME. These, as spun and woven for us from before Birth itself, to clothe our celestial ME for dwelling here, and yet to blind it, lie all-embracing, as the universal canvas, or warp and woof, whereby all minor Illusions, in this Phantasm Existence, weave and paint themselves. In vain, while here on Earth, shall you endeavor to strip them off; you can, at best, but rend them asunder for moments, and look through.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Lying, Two, Dwelling

  Thomas Carlyle, G. B. Tennyson (1984). “Carlyle Reader”, p.304, CUP Archive

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• All wars are boyish, and are fought by boys, The champions and enthusiasts of the state: Turbid ardors and vain joys Not barrenly abate-- Stimulants to the power mature, Preparatives of fate.

  Herman Melville

  War, Fate, Boys

  Herman Melville, Douglas Robillard (2000). “The Poems of Herman Melville”, p.58, Kent State University Press

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

  John Milton

  Land, Share, Valor

  John Milton (1873). “The Poetical Works of John Milton: With a Life of the Author, Preliminary Dissertations on Each Poem, Notes Critical and Explanatory, an Index to the Subjects of Paradise Lost, and a Verbal Index to All the Poems”, p.482

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• O strong soul, by what shore Tarriest thou now? For that force, Surely, has not been left vain!

  Matthew Arnold

  Strong, Soul, Force

  Matthew Arnold (1994). “Dover Beach and Other Poems”, p.89, Courier Corporation

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• What though the spicy breezes Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle; Though every prospect pleases, And only man is vile: In vain with lavish kindness The gifts of God are strown; The heathen in his blindness Bows down to wood and stone.

  Reginald Heber

  Kindness, Blow, Men

  'From Greenland's icy mountains' (1821 hymn). Heber later altered 'Ceylon's isle' to 'Java's isle'.

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• If a man wants to get it right, he's looked up to and respected. If a woman wants to get it right, she's difficult or impossible. If he acts, produces and directs, he's called multitalented. If she does the same thing, she's called vain and egotistical.

  Barbra Streisand

  Men, Doe, Want

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• To feel oppressed by obligation is only to prove that we are incapable of a proper sentiment of gratitude. To receive favors from the unworthy is simply to admit that our selfishness is superior to our pride. Most men remember obligations, but not often to be grateful for them. The proud are made sour by the remembrance and the vain silent.

  William Gilmore Simms

  Gratitude, Grateful, Pride

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• It is in vain a daring author thinks of attaining to the heights of Parnassus if he does not feel the secret influence of heaven and if his natal star has not formed him to be a poet.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Stars, Thinking, Heaven

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• A proud bigot, who is vain enough to think that he can deceive even God by affected zeal, and throwing the veil of holiness over vices, damns all mankind by the word of his power.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Thinking, Vices, Veils

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• Strength diminishes when it seems we are spending it in vain.

  Susan Glaspell

  Motivation, Spending, Diminish

  Susan Glaspell (1940). “The morning is near us: a novel”, Stokes

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• Fancy brings us as many vain hopes as idle fears.

  Wilhelm von Humboldt

  Fancy, Idle

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• This is that rest this vain world lends,
  To end in death that all things ends.

  Samuel Daniel

  Suicide, World, Ends

  Samuel Daniel (1718). “The Poetical Works of Mr. Samuel Daniel ...: To which is Prefix'd, Memoirs of His Life and Writings ...”, p.270

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• Nature has made nothing in vain.

  Delarivier Manley

  Nature, Made

  Delarivier Manley (2017). “New Atalantis”, p.276, Routledge

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• Philosophical studies are beset by one peril, a person easily brings himself to think that he thinks; and a smattering of science encourages conceit. He is above his companions. A hieroglyphic is a spell. The gnostic dogma is cuneiform writing to the million. Moreover, the vain man is generally a doubter. It is Newton who sees himself in a child on the sea shore, and his discoveries in the colored shells.

  Robert Aris Willmott

  Children, Philosophy, Philosophical

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• Few footprints of the great remain in the sand before the ever-flowing tide. Long ago it washed out Homer's. Curiosity follows him in vain; Greece and Asia perplex us with a rival Stratford-upon-Avon. The rank of Aristophanes is only conjectured from his gift to two poor players in Athens. The age made no sign when Shakespeare, its noblest son, passed away.

  Robert Aris Willmott

  Son, Player, Greatness

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

  Hadewijch

  Giving, Despair

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• Vain man is apt to think we were merely intended for the world's propagation and to keep its human inhabitants sweet and clean; but, by their leaves, had we the same literature he would find our brains as fruitful as our bodies.

  Hannah Woolley

  Sweet, Men, Thinking

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• Words? I tell you not to write me letters; I command you. Is it not enough to want you so in vain, but you send me what evokes you here before me -- this paper, all along whose lines your hand has lain?

  Anne Reeve Aldrich

  Writing, Hands, Paper

  Anne Reeve Aldrich (1893). “Nadine and Other Poems”

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• 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.

  John Gay

  Ostriches, Crowns, Nodding

  John Gay, Nathaniel Cotton, Edward Moore (1826). “Gay's Fables and other poems: Cotton's visions in verse ; Moore's Fables for the female sex ; with sketches of the authors' lives”, p.219

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

  Lord Byron

  Wine, May, Soda

  Lord Byron (2013). “Don Juan”, p.83, Simon and Schuster

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• Slayer of the winter, art thou here again? O welcome, thou that bring'st the summer nigh! The bitter wind makes not the victory vain. Nor will we mock thee for thy faint blue sky.

  William Morris

  Summer, Art, Winter

  William Morris, May Morris (2012). “The Collected Works of William Morris: With Introductions by His Daughter May Morris”, p.82, Cambridge University Press

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