Vain Quotes - Page 34

• You say I took the name in vain I don't even know the name But if I did, well really, what's it to you? There's a blaze of light in every word It doesn't matter which you heard The holy or the broken Hallelujah

  Leonard Cohen

  Light, Names, Broken

  Song: Hallelujah

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• Shall this nectar Run useless, then, to waste? or ... these lips, That open like the morn, breathing perfumes, On such as dare approach them, be untouch'd? They must--nay, 'tis in vain to make resistance-- Be often kissed and tasted.

  Philip Massinger

  Running, Breathing, Useless

  Philip Massinger, John Ferriar (1813). “The Plays of Philip Massinger: The bondman. The renegado. The parliament of love. The Roman actor. The great Duke of Florence”, p.265

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• What is there in places empty of matter? and Whence is it that the sun and planets gravitate toward one another without dense matter between them? Whence is it that Nature doth nothing in vain? and Whence arises all that order and beauty which we see in the world? To what end are comets? and Whence is it that planets move all one and the same way in orbs concentrick, while comets move all manner of ways in orbs very excentrick? and What hinders the fixed stars from falling upon one another?

  Isaac Newton

  Stars, Moving, Fall

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• 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!

  John Fletcher

  Sweet, Night, Delight

  John Fletcher, “Melancholy”

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• Galen , in the third section of his book, "The Use of the Limbs," says correctly that it would be in vain to expect to see living beings formed of the blood of menstruous women and the semen virile, who will not die, will never feel pain, or will move perpetually, or shine like the sun. This dictum of Galen is part of the following more general proposition: Whatever is formed of matter receives the most perfect form possible in that species of matter; in each individual case the defects are in accordance with that individual matter.

  Maimonides

  Pain, Moving, Book

  Moses Maimonides, Aeterna Press (1948). “The Guide for the Perplexed”, p.436, Aeterna Press

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• Actions are divided as regards their object into four classes; they are either purposeless , unimportant , or vain , or good .

  Maimonides

  Class, Four, Action

  Moses Maimonides (1963). “The Wisdom of Moses Maimonides”

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• Glory darts her soul-pervading ray on thrones and cottages, regardless still of all the artificial nice distinctions vain human customs make.

  Hannah More

  Nice, Soul, Rays

  Hannah More (1840). “Miscellaneous Works: Tragedies. Miscellaneous poems. Hymns and ballads. Sacred Dramas. Coelebs. Practical piety. Moriana”, p.301

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• There are women vain of advantages not connected with their persons, such as birth, rank, and fortune; it is difficult to feel less the dignity of the sex. The origin of all women may be called celestial, for their power is the offspring of the gifts of Nature; by yielding to pride and ambition they soon destroy the magic of their charms.

  Madame de Stael

  Sex, Ambition, Pride

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• I knock unbidden once at every gate--
  If sleeping, wake--if feasting, rise before
  I turn away--it is the hour of fate,
  And they who follow me reach every state
  Mortals desire, and conquer every foe
  Save death, but those who doubt of hesitate,
  Condemned to failure, penury and woe,
  Seek me in vain and uselessly implore,
  I answer not, and I return no more.

  John James Ingalls

  Sleep, Fate, Opportunity

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• Friendship is a serious affection; the most sublime of all affections, because it is founded on principle, and cemented by time. The very reverse may be said of love. In a great degree, love and friendship cannot subsist in the same bosom; even when inspired by different objects they weaken or destroy each other, and for the same object can only be felt in succession. The vain fears and fond jealousies, the winds which fan the flame of love, when judiciously or artfully tempered, are both incompatible with the tender confidence and sincere respect of friendship.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Friendship, Flames, Wind

  Mary Wollstonecraft (2012). “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, p.71, Courier Corporation

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• Such is the nature of the marriage relation that a breach once made cannot be healed, and it is the height of folly to waste one's life in vain efforts to make a binary compound of two diverse elements. What would we think of the chemist who should sit twenty years trying to mix oil and water, and insist upon it that his happiness depended upon the result of the experiment?

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Marriage, Thinking, Oil And Water

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriot (Stanton). Blatch (Mrs) (1922). “Elizabeth Cady Stanton as revealed in her letters, diary and reminiscences”

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• It is in vain to look for the elevation of woman so long as she is degraded in marriage.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Marriage, Long, Looks

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan Brownell Anthony, Ann Dexter Gordon (1997). “The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: In the school of anti-slavery, 1840 to 1866”, p.194, Rutgers University Press

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• The source of each accordant strain
  Lies deeper than the Poet's brain.
  First from the people's heart must spring
  The passions which he learns to sing;
  They are the wind, the harp is he,
  To voice their fitful melody,--
  The language of their varying fate,
  Their pride, grief, love, ambition, hate,--
  The talisman which holds inwrought
  The touchstone of the listener's thought;
  That penetrates each vain disguise,
  And brings his secret to his eyes.

  Bayard Taylor

  Lying, Hate, Spring

  Bayard Taylor (1866). “The Poems”, p.111

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• Right there is the usefulness of migraine, there in that imposed yoga, the concentration on the pain. For when the pain recedes, ten or twelve hours later, everything goes with it, all the hidden resentments, all the vain anxieties. The migraine has acted as a circuit breaker, and the fuses have emerged intact. There is a pleasant convalescent euphoria.

  Joan Didion

  Pain, Yoga, Anxiety

  Joan Didion (2013). “The White Album”, p.115, Zola Books

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• Fortunes are made, if I the facts may state--
  Though poor myself, I know the fortunate:
  First, there's a knowledge of the way from whence
  Good fortune comes--and this is sterling sense:
  Then perseverance, never to decline
  The chase of riches till the prey is thine;
  And firmness never to be drawn away
  By any passion from that noble prey--
  By love, ambition, study, travel, fame,
  Or the vain hope that lives upon a name.

  George Crabbe

  Perseverance, Ambition, Passion

  George Crabbe (1839). “The Poetical Works of Crabbe, Heber, and Pollok: Complete in One Volume”, p.364

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• Men famed for wit, of dangerous talents vain,
  Treat those of common parts with proud disdain;
  The powers that wisdom would, improving, hide,
  They blaze abroad, with inconsid'rate pride;
  While yet but mere probationers for fame,
  They seize the honor they should then disclaim:
  Honor so hurried to the light must fade,
  The lasting laurels nourish in the shade.

  George Crabbe

  Pride, Men, Light

  George Crabbe (1839). “The Poetical Works of Crabbe, Heber, and Pollok: Complete in One Volume”, p.158

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• Drawn by conceit from reason's plan
  How vain is that poor creature man;
  How pleas'd in ev'ry paltry elf
  To grate about that thing himself.

  Charles Churchill

  Men, Reason, Poor

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• Tis mighty easy o'er a glass of wine
  On vain refinements vainly to refine,
  To laugh at poverty in plenty's reign,
  To boast of apathy when out of pain,
  And in each sentence, worthy of the schools,
  Varnish'd with sophistry, to deal out rules
  Most fit for practice, but for one poor fault
  That into practice they can ne'er be brought.

  Charles Churchill

  Pain, Wine, School

  Charles Churchill (1855). “The Poetical Works of Charles Churchill: With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes”, p.377

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• O that one unguarded moment! / Were it mine to live again, / All the strength of its temptation / Would appeal to me in vain.

  Phoebe Cary

  Regret, Temptation, Moments

  Phoebe Cary (1854). “Poems and Parodies”, p.58

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• It gives me no joy to be praised at the expense of a better artist, by someone who does not know the difference or who thinks me too vain to be aware of it myself.

  Mary Renault

  Humility, Artist, Thinking

  Mary Renault (1974). “The Mask of Apollo”

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• 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.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Sacrifice, Men, Self

  "Justice and Fraternity". Journal des Économistes, June 15, 1848.

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• A Finnan haddock has a relish of a peculiar and delicate flavour, inimitable on any other coast than that of Aberdeenshire. Some of our Edinburgh philosophers tried to produce their equal in vain. I was one of a party at dinner where the philosophical haddocks were placed in competition with the genuine Finnan fish. These were served round without distinguishing whence they came; but only one gentleman out of twelve present espoused the cause of philosophy.

  Walter Scott

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Party

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• When evening quickens in the street, comes a pause in the day's occupation that is known as the cocktail hour. It marks the lifeward turn. The heart wakens from coma and its dyspnea ends. Its strengthening pulse is to cross over into campground, to believe that the world has not been altogether lost or, if lost, then not altogether in vain.

  Bernard DeVoto

  Believe, Food, Heart

  1951 The Hour.

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• Is it not an amazing thing, that men shall attempt to investigate the mystery of the redemption, when, at the same time that it is propounded to us as an article of faith solely, we are told that "the very angels have desired to pry into it in vain"?

  Laurence Sterne

  Angel, Men, Redemption

  Laurence Sterne (1805). “The Works of Laurence Sterne, A. M.: A sentimental journey through France and Italy. The Koran: or, The life, character and sentiments of Tria Juncta in Uno. A political romance”, p.379

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• It is vain to trust in wrong; it is like erecting a building upon a frail foundation, and which will directly be sure to topple over.

  Hosea Ballou

  Foundation, Building, Frail

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