Vain Quotes - Page 17

• 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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• If we fail to interest, whether because we are dull and heavy, or because our hearers are so, we teach in vain.

  John Lancaster Spalding

  Dull, Failing, Heavy

  John Lancaster Spalding (1901). “Aphorisms and Reflections: Conduct, Culture and Religion”

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• Freedom without organization of work would be useless. The child left free without means of work would go to waste, just as a new-born baby, if left free without nourishment, would die of starvation.The organization of the work, therefore, is the cornerstone of this new structure of goodness [in education], but even that organization would be in vain without the liberty to make use of it.

  Maria Montessori

  Baby, Children, Mean

  Maria Montessori (2014). “Montessori's Own Handbook”, p.62, Montessori Helper

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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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• In a vain man, the smallest spark may kindle into the greatest flame, because the materials are always prepared for it.

  David Hume

  Men, Vanity, Flames

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• It is vain to trust in wrong; as much of evil, so much of loss, is the formula of human history.

  Theodore Parker

  Loss, Evil, Formulas

  Theodore Parker (1867). “The Collected Works of Theodore Parker: Sermons. Prayers”, p.50

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• A cockle-fish may as soon crowd the ocean into its narrow shell, as vain man ever comprehend the decrees of God!

  William Beveridge

  Ocean, Men, Shells

  William Beveridge (1847). “Ecclesia Anglicana Ecclesia Catholica: Or, The Doctrine of the Church of England Consonant to Scripture, Reason, and Fathers : in a Discourse Upon the Thirty Nine Articles Agreed Upon in the Convocation Held at London MDLXII”, p.344

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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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• Never expect justice from a vain man; if he has the negative magnanimity not to disparage you, it is the most you can expect.

  Washington Allston

  Men, Vanity, Justice

  Washington Allston (1850). “Lectures on Art, and Poems”, p.173

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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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• The mere reality of life would be inconceivably poor without the charm of fancy, which brings in its bosom, no doubt, as many vain fears as idle hopes, but lends much oftener to the illusions it calls up a gay flattering hue than one which inspires terror.

  Wilhelm von Humboldt

  Gay, Reality, Inspire

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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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• The wise man is wise in vain who cannot be wise to his own advantage.
  [Lat., Nequicquam sapere sapientem, qui ipse sibi prodesse non quiret.]

  Quintus Ennius

  Wise, Wisdom, Men

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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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• Virtue, vain word, futile shadow, slave of chance! Alas! I believe in thee!

  Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger

  Believe, Shadow, Chance

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• He that despairs degrades the Deity, and seems to intimate that He is insufficient, or not just to His word; and in vain hath read the scriptures, the world, and man.

  Owen Feltham

  Men, Despair, Scripture

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• For never has there been, in modern times, such a Homeric world, where so much value is pinned onto the utterance of name! Entire conversations, entire lives, are devoted to the act of naming people, and in Pakistan the affluent would be totally devoid of talk if they were unable to take names in vain. Caste and all its subclassifications are recreated every day in the structure of a conversation that knows which names to name.

  Sara Suleri

  Names, People, Would Be

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