Vain Quotes - Page 21

• I fear that, as conditions worsen, many will react to the failures of too much government by calling for even more government. Then there will be more and more lifeboats launched because fewer and fewer citizens know how to swim. Unlike some pendulums, political pendulums to not swing back automatically; they must be pushed. History is full of instances when people have waited in vain for pendulums to swing back.

  Neal A. Maxwell

  Government, Swings, People

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• It is in vain, I perceive, to look for ease and happiness in a world of troubles.

  George Washington

  Looks, Ease, World

  George Washington (1855). “Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral, and Religious”, p.403

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• The vain, inconstant, rebellious disposition of the people [of Armorica], was incompatible either with freedom or servitude.

  Edward Gibbon

  People, Rebellious, Disposition

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• [The] vain and transitory scenes of human greatness are unworthy of a serious thought.

  Edward Gibbon

  Greatness, Serious, Scene

  Edward Gibbon (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)”, p.1871, Delphi Classics

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• It's a vain hope to believe that people will voluntarily turn their back on government subsidies.

  James Cook

  Believe, Government, People

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• Let my lips avoid vain repetition as I lift my voice in praise, O Lord. Distract me from my distractions, awaken me from the dullness of mind, and transform habit and routine into vibrant times of worship.

  Jack W. Hayford

  Voice, Mind, Routine

  Jack W. Hayford (1992). “The Heart of Praise: Daily Ways to Worship the Father with Psalms”

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• A man does not fight to win; it is better to fight in vain.

  Edmond Rostand

  Fighting, Winning, Men

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• Discourses on humility are a source of pride in the vain and of humility in the humble. So those on scepticism cause believers to affirm. Few men speak humbly of humility, chastely of chastity, few doubtingly of scepticism.

  Blaise Pascal

  Humble, Humility, Pride

  Blaise Pascal (2016). “Pensées”, p.142, Open Road Media

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• Scripture will ultimately suffice for a saving knowledge of God only when its certainty is founded upon the inward persuasion of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, these human testimonies which exist to confirm it will not be vain if, as secondary aids to our feebleness, they follow that chief and highest testimony. But those who wish to prove to unbelievers that Scripture is the Word of God are acting foolishly, for only by faith can this be known.

  John Calvin

  Wish, Acting, Inward

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• The lover's pleasure is in the pleasure of the beloved. The lover is satisfied when the beloved is fed. The lover is vain when the beloved is adorned.

  Hazrat Inayat Khan

  Lovers, Beloved, Pleasure

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• Prayer from the depth and prayer from the surface are two prayers. One can utter what Christ has called 'vain repetitions', just repeating the prayer; one does not fix one's mind on the meaning of the prayer. If the depth of one's heart has heard the prayer, God has heard it.

  Hazrat Inayat Khan

  Prayer, Heart, Two

  Hazrat Inayat Khan (1982). “The Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan: Healing, Mental Purification and the Mind World”, p.467, Library of Alexandria

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• I'm as vain as everybody else, but if I see a mirror I have to look at myself.

  Alessandra Ambrosio

  Mirrors, Looks, Ifs

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• If free men refused to look at dead bodies then brave men will have died in vain.

  John Shaw Billings

  Men, Brave, Looks

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• One has to spend so many years in learning how to be happy. I am just beginning to make some progress in the science, and I hope to disprove Young's theory that "as soon as we have found the key of life it opes the gates of death." Every year strips us of at least one vain expectation, and teaches us to reckon some solid good in its stead. I never will believe that our youngest days are our happiest. What a miserable augury for the progress of the race and the destination of the individual if the more matured and enlightened state is the less happy one!

  George Eliot

  Believe, Keys, Race

  George Eliot (1954). “The George Eliot Letters: 1836-1851”

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• There are two things that we should avoid, oh disciple! A life of pleasures, that is low and vain. A life of mortification, that is useless and vain.

  Gautama Buddha

  Two, Useless, Pleasure

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• My dear friend, do not imagine that I am vain enough to ascribe our success [Revolution] to any superiority . . . If it had not been for the justice of our cause, and the consequent interposition of Providence, in which we had faith, we must have been ruined. If I had ever before been an atheist, I should now have been convinced of the being and government of a Deity!

  Benjamin Franklin

  Atheist, Government, Justice

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• Christ could be born a thousand times in Bethlehem - but all in vain until He is born in me.

  Angelus Silesius

  Christ, Born, Thousand

  "Messenger of the Heart: The Book of Angelus Silesius with Observations by the Ancient Zen Masters". Book edited by Frederick Franck, 2005.

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• Against stupidity, God Himself fights in vain.

  Friedrich Schiller

  Fighting, Stupidity

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• Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud-and the only answer is the echo of our wailing cry. From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word. But in the night of Death Hope sees a star and listening Love can hear the rustling of a wing.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Stars, Night, Echoes

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1911). “The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll”

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• It is our firm conviction that mankind will live the happier when it has learned to live with music more worthily. Whoever works to promote this end, in one way or another, has not lived in vain.

  Zoltan Kodaly

  Way, Conviction, Ends

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• Man loves the marvelous. It has an irresistible charm for him. He is always ready to leave that with which he is familiar to pursue vain inventions. He lends himself to his own deception.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Men, Deception, Invention

  "Napoleon : In His Own Words" edited by Jules Bertaut, translated by Herbert Edward Law and Charles Lincoln Rhodes, (Ch. VII), 1916.

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• If a monk can overcome two things, he can become free from the world. Bodily ease and vain-glory.

  Poemen

  Two, Overcoming, Ease

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• I change my hairstyle every day for the show, I'm fastidious and vain about my nails and teeth and grooming and makeup, but a perfect body, forget it. Dust to dust, wuggies to wuggies.

  Kathie Lee Gifford

  Makeup, Dust, Perfect

  Kathie Lee Gifford, Jim Jerome (1993). “I Can't Believe I Said That!: An Autobiography”, MacMillan Publishing Company

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• My definition of bad-ass is that I'm a force of nature and true spirit. I'm self-admitting that, and it sounds vain to say that, but I am.

  Idris Elba

  Bad Ass, Self, Sound

  "Idris Elba on ‘Luther’, Movie Possibilities, Neil Cross, His Upcoming Album, and More". collider.com. December 10, 2015.

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• I am what I am, and what I am is always due to him; whatever in me or in my words is good and true and eternal came to me from his mouth, his heart, his soul. Sri Ramakrishna is the spring of this phase of the earth's religious life, of its impulses and activities. If I can show the world one glimpse of my Master, I shall not have lived in vain.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Religious, Spring, Heart

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