Vain Quotes - Page 40

• 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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• If thou neglectest thy love to thy neighbor, in vain thou professest thy love to God; for by thy love to God, the love to thy neighbor is begotten, and by the love to thy neighbor thy love to God is nourished.

  Francis Quarles

  Charity, Neighbor, Ifs

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert (p.47), 1895.

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• When the flesh presents thee with delights, then present thyself with dangers; where the world possesses thee with vain hopes, there possess thyself with true fear; when the devil brings thee oil, bring thou vinegar. The way to be safe is never to be secure.

  Francis Quarles

  Oil, Temptation, Devil

  Francis Quarles (1844). “Enchiridion Institutions, Essays and Maxims, political, moral & divine. Divided into four centuries. By Francis Quarles”, p.94

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• Thy pride is but the prologue of thy shame; where vain-glory commands, there folly counsels; where pride rides, there shame lackeys.

  Francis Quarles

  Pride, Vanity, Shame

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• He that taketh his own cares upon himself loads himself in vain with an uneasy burden. I will cast all my cares on God; He hath bidden me; they cannot burden Him.

  Joseph Hall

  Care, Burden, Casts

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• His kingdom come!" For this we pray in vain,
  Unless He does in our affections reign.
  How fond it were to wish for such a King,
  And no obedience to his sceptre bring,
  Whose yoke is easy, and His burthen light;
  His service freedom, and His judgments right.

  Edmund Waller

  Kings, Light, Wish

  Edmund Waller (1854). “Poetical Works”, p.252

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• We have but the memories of past good cheer, we have but the echoes of departed laughter. In vain we look and listen for the mirth that has died away. In vain we seek to question the gray ghosts of old-time revelers.

  Agnes Repplier

  Cheer, Laughter, Memories

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• The names of great painters are like passing-bells: in the name of Velasquez you hear sounded the fall of Spain; .in the name of Titian, that of Venice; in the name of Leonardo, that of Milan; in the name of Raphael, that of Rome. And there is profound justice in this, for in proportion to the nobleness of the power is the guilt of its use for purposes vain or vile; and hitherto the greater the art, the more surely has it been used, and used solely, for the decoration of pride or the provoking of sensuality.

  John Ruskin

  Art, Fall, Pride

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• 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.

  Isaac Watts

  Reading, Men, Intellectual

  Isaac Watts, Joseph Emerson (1855). “The Improvement of the Mind”, p.66

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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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