Vain Quotes - Page 32

• The skeptic has no illusions about life, nor a vain belief in the promise of immortality. Since this life here and now is all we can know, our most reasonable option is to live it fully.

  Paul Kurtz

  Promise, Atheism, Belief

  Paul Kurtz (1986). “The Transcendental Temptation: A Critique of Religion and the Paranormal”

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• True religion extends alike to the intellect and the heart. Intellect is in vain if it lead not to emotion, and emotion is vain if not enlightened by intellect; and both are vain if not guided by truth and leading to duty.

  Tryon Edwards

  Heart, Emotion, Enlightened

  Tryon Edwards (2015). “The New Dictionary of Thoughts”, p.1145, Ravenio Books

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• An appeal to a goodness which is not in him is, to a vain and sensitive soul, a stinging insult.

  Frederick Rolfe

  Soul, Insult, Sensitive

  "Hadrian the Seventh" by Frederick Rolfe, Penguin Modern Classics edition, Harmondsworth, (p. 296), 1963.

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• The enemies of the Soviet state calculate that the heavy loss we have borne will lead to disorder and confusion in our ranks. But their expectations are in vain: bitter disillusionment awaits them. He who is not blind sees that our party, during its difficult days, is closing its ranks still more closely, that it is united and unshakable.

  Lavrentiy Beria

  Party, Loss, Expectations

  "The Current Digest of the Soviet Press". Issued by the Joint Committee on Slavic Studies, p. 9, 1953.

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• Vain-glorious man, when fluttering wind does blow
  In his light wing's, is lifted up to sky;
  The scorn of-knighthood and true chivalry.
  To think, without desert of gentle deed
  And noble worth, to be advanced high,
  Such praise is shame, but honour, virtue's meed,
  Doth bear the fairest flower in honourable seed.

  Edmund Spenser

  Flower, Blow, Men

  Edmund Spenser (1965). “Books I and II of the Faerie queene: the mutability cantos, and selections from the minor poetry”

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• To so perverse a sex all grace is vain.

  John Dryden

  Sex, Grace

  Mr. Joseph Trapp, Mr. John Dryden, Edmund Smith, Mr. John Crown, Colley Cibber (1721). “A Select Collection of the Best Modern English Plays: Vol. III.”, p.29

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

  John Dryden

  Doubt, Age, Care

  John Dryden (1808). “The works of John Dryden now first collected ...”, p.426

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• Excess in apparel is another costly folly. The very trimming of the vain world would clothe all the naked ones.

  William Penn

  Excess, World, Naked

  Benjamin Franklin, William Penn (2012). “Franklin's Way to Wealth and Penn's Maxims”, p.28, Courier Corporation

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• We are to take no counsel with flesh and blood; give ear to no vain cavils, vain sorrows and wishes; to know that we know nothing, that the worst and cruelest to our eyes is not what it seems, that we have to receive whatsoever befalls us as sent from God above, and say, "It is good and wise,--God is great! Though He slay me, yet I trust in Him." Islam means, in its way, denial of self. This is yet the highest wisdom that heaven has revealed to our earth.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Wise, Mean, Eye

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• Next, to make them expert in the usefullest points of grammar; and withal to season them and win them early to the love of virtue and true labour, ere any flattering seducement or vain principle seize them wandering, some easy and delightful book of education would be read to them; whereof the Greeks have store, as Cebes, Plutarch, and other Socratic discourses.

  John Milton

  Children, Book, Winning

  John Milton, James Augustus St. John, Charles Richard Sumner (1872). “The Prose Works of John Milton ...: With a Preface, Preliminary Remarks, and Notes”, p.468

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• An old dog barks not in vain.

  George Herbert

  Dog, Bark, Old Dog

  George Herbert, Christopher Harvey, George Gilfillan (1857). “The poetical works of George Herbert”, p.325

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• Of him that hopes to be forgiven it is indispensably required that he forgive. It is, therefore, superfluous to urge any other motive. On this great duty eternity is suspended, and to him that refuses to practise it, the throne of mercy is inaccessible, and the Saviour of the world has been born in vain.

  Samuel Johnson

  Forgiveness, Forgiving, Thrones

  Samuel Johnson (1836). “Johnsoniana; or supplement to Boswell; being Anecdotes and sayings of Dr. Johnson, etc”, p.385

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• Great people and champions are special gifts of God, whom He gives and preserves; they do their work, and achieve great actions, not with vain imaginations, or cold and sleepy cogitations, but by motion of God.

  Martin Luther

  Greatness, People, Giving

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• Their origin is commonly unknown; for the practice often continues when the cause has ceased, and concerning superstitious ceremonies it is in vain to conjecture; for what reason did not dictate, reason cannot explain.

  Samuel Johnson

  Practice, Causes, Reason

  Samuel Johnson (1977). “Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.150, Univ of California Press

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• The ways of heaven are dark and intricate,
  Puzzled in mazes, and perplex'd with errors;
  Our understanding traces them in vain,
  Lost and bewilder'd in the fruitless search;
  Nor sees with how much art the windings run,
  Nor where the regular confusion ends.

  Joseph Addison

  Running, Art, Dark

  Joseph Addison (1868). “The Works of Joseph Addison”, p.481

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• Look what a little vain dust we are!

  Joseph Addison

  Dust, Looks, Littles

  Sir Richard Steele, Joseph Addison, Laurence Sterne, Oliver Goldsmith, William Makepeace Thackeray (1906). “English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century: Sir Richard Steele, Joseph Addison, Laurence Sterne, Oliver Goldsmith”

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

  Robert Herrick

  Giving, Action, Benediction

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• When we are conscious of the least comparative merit in ourselves, we should take as much care to conceal the value we set upon it, as if it were a real defect; to be elated or vain upon it is showing your money before people in want.

  Colley Cibber

  Real, Vanity, People

  Colley Cibber (1830). “An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber, Comedian”, p.27

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• it is so difficult not to become vain about one's own good luck.

  Simone de Beauvoir

  Good Luck, Complacency, Difficult

  Simone de Beauvoir (1977). “Force of circumstance”

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• The man who is roused neither by glory nor by danger it is in vain to exhort; terror closes the ears of the mind.
  [Lat., Quem neque gloria neque pericula excitant, nequidquam hortere; timor animi auribus officit.]

  Sallust

  Fear, Men, Mind

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• It is vain to say that enlightened statesmen will always be able to adjust their interests. Enlightened men will not always be at the helm.

  James Madison

  Men, Able, Enlightened

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• We are so presumptuous that we wish to be known to all the world, even to those who come after us; and we are so vain that the esteem of five or six persons immediately around us is enough to amuse and satisfy us.

  Blaise Pascal

  Vanity, Wish, World

  Blaise Pascal (1849). “Thoughts of Blaise Pascal”, p.90

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• All men are selfish, but the vain man is in love with himself. He admires, like the lover his adored one, everything which to others is indifferent.

  Berthold Auerbach

  Selfish, Men, Vanity

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• Wrinkle not thy face with too much laughter, lest thou become ridiculous; neither wanton thy heart with too much mirth, lest thou become vain: the suburbs of folly is vain mirth, and profuseness of laughter is the city of fools.

  Francis Quarles

  Laughter, Heart, Wrinkles

  Francis Quarles (1844). “Enchiridion Institutions, Essays and Maxims, political, moral & divine. Divided into four centuries. By Francis Quarles”, p.56

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• Things temporal are sweeter in the expectation, things eternal are sweeter in the fruition; the first shames thy hope, the second crowns it; it is a vain journey, whose end affords less pleasure than the way.

  Francis Quarles

  Journey, Expectations, Fruition

  Francis Quarles (1844). “Enchiridion Institutions, Essays and Maxims, political, moral & divine. Divided into four centuries. By Francis Quarles”, p.70

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