Vain Quotes - Page 26

• Concerning God, freewill and destiny: Of all that earth has been or yet may be, all that vain men imagine or believe, or hope can paint or suffering may achieve, we descanted.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Believe, Destiny, Men

  Percy Bysshe Shelley (1994). “The Selected Poetry and Prose of Shelley”, p.207, Wordsworth Editions

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• In life there is nothing more unexpected and surprising than the arrivals and departures of pleasure. If we find it in one place today, it is vain to seek it there tomorrow. You can not lay a trap for it.

  Alexander Smith

  Today, Departure, Tomorrow

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• It may easily come to pass that a vain man may become proud and imagine himself pleasing to all when he is in reality a universal nuisance.

  Baruch Spinoza

  Reality, Men, Nuisance

  "Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata" by Baruch Spinoza, Part III, (Prop. 30: Note), 1677.

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• Failure saves lives. In the airline industry, every time a plane crashes the probability of the next crash is lowered by that. The Titanic saved lives because we're building bigger and bigger ships. So these people died, but we have effectively improved the safety of the system, and nothing failed in vain.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Failure, People, Safety

  The Tavis Smiley Show, www.pbs.org. December 3, 2012.

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• It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.

  Voltaire

  Bravery, Coward, Defying

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• A religious awakening which does not awaken the sleeper to love has roused him in vain.

  Jessamyn West

  Love, Inspiring, Religious

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• The sexiest people are thinkers. Nobody's interested in somebody who's just vain with a hole in their head, talking about the latest thing - there is no latest thing. It's all rubbish.

  Vivienne Westwood

  Talking, People, Rubbish

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• Many have a vague idea that they must make some wonderful effort in order to gain the favor of God. But all self-dependence is vain. It is only by connecting with Jesus through faith that the sinner becomes a hopeful, believing child of God.

  Ellen G. White

  Jesus, Children, Believe

  Ellen G. White (2014). “Signs of the Times Articles - Book I of III”, p.55, Lulu Press, Inc

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• We must not indulge in unfavorable views of mankind, since by doing it we make bad men believe they are no worse than others, and we teach the good that they are good in vain.

  Walter Winchell

  Life, Success, Believe

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• Women have seldom sufficient employment to silence their feelings; a round of little cares, or vain pursuits frittering away all strength of mind and organs, they become naturally only objects of sense.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Silence, Feelings, Mind

  Mary Wollstonecraft (2015). “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, p.92, Booklassic

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• As we get used to women in power, we are likely to discover that they behave much like powerful men - vain, entitled, always looking for more.

  Hanna Rosin

  Powerful, Men, Used

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• The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity.

  Epicurus

  Infinity, Wealth, Easy

  "Principal Doctrines". Translated by Robert Drew Hicks,

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• Justice can sleep for years and awaken when it is least expected. A miracle is nothing more than dormant justice from another time arriving to compensate those it has cruelly abandoned. Whoever knows this is willing to suffer, for he knows that nothing is in vain.

  Mark Helprin

  Life, Sleep, Years

  Mark Helprin (1989). “Winter's Tale”, Pocket Books

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• Waste not a day in vain digression; with resolute, courageous trust seek every possible impression and make it firmly your posession you'll then work on because you must.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Waste, Courageous, Impression

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• I don't want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met. I want to go on living even after my death!

  Anne Frank

  People, Goes On, Want

  Anne Frank (2016). “The Diary of a Young Girl”, p.132, Hamilton Books

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• If you compare yourself to others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

  Max Ehrmann

  May, Bitter, Compare

  Max Ehrmann, “Desiderata”

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• And in vain does the dreamer rummage about in his old dreams, raking them over as though they were a heap of cinders, looking into these cinders for some spark, however tiny, to fan it into a flame so as to warm his chilled blood by it and revive in it all that he held so dear before, all that touched his heart, that made his blood course through his veins, that drew tears from his eyes, and that so splendidly deceived him!

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Dream, Eye, Heart

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• Love is not vain because it is frustrated, but because it is fulfilled. The people we love turn to ashes when we posess them.

  Marcel Proust

  Love Is, People, Frustrated

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• The human bones are but vain lines dawdling, the whole universe a blank mold of stars.

  Jack Kerouac

  Stars, Mold, Lines

  Jack Kerouac (1986). “The Dharma Bums”, p.146, Penguin

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• So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life is not in vain.

  Helen Keller

  Pain, Long, Generosity

  Helen Keller (2011). “To Live, to Think, to Hope: Inspirational Quotes by Helen Keller”, p.159, Matthew Gordon

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• I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that "except the Lord build they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel

  Benjamin Franklin

  Fall, Believe, Writing

  Constitutional Convention Address on Prayer, delivered Thursday, June 28, 1787, Philadelphia, PA

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• In the mountains of truth, you never climb in vain.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Truth, Mountain, Climbs

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2015). “A Book For Free Spirits 2: Human Book”, p.129, 谷月社

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• Philosophy [nature] is written in that great book which ever is before our eyes -- I mean the universe -- but we cannot understand it if we do not first learn the language and grasp the symbols in which it is written. The book is written in mathematical language, and the symbols are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without whose help it is impossible to comprehend a single word of it; without which one wanders in vain through a dark labyrinth.

  Galileo Galilei

  Philosophy, Book, Mean

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• The pain comes from more than the facts of circumstance, or the deeds of others. It comes from within. From understanding what we lost. It comes from knowing how foolish we were - vain, arrogant children - when we thought ourselves happy. It comes from knowing how fragile and doomed the old ways were, just when we thought them and ourselves, secure!. The pain comes from knowing we have never been safe, and therefore will never be safe again. It comes from knowing we can never be children again.

  John Jakes

  Children, Pain, Knowing

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• Hope is the denial of reality. It is the carrot dangled before the draft horse to keep him plodding along in a vain attempt to reach it." "Are you saying we shouldn't hope?" "I'm saying we should remove the carrot and walk forward with our eyes open!

  Margaret Weis

  Horse, Eye, Reality

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