Vain Quotes - Page 38

• To so perverse a sex all grace is vain.

  John Dryden

  Sex, Grace

  Mr. Joseph Trapp, Mr. John Dryden, Edmund Smith, Mr. John Crown, Colley Cibber (1721). “A Select Collection of the Best Modern English Plays: Vol. III.”, p.29

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• An old dog barks not in vain.

  George Herbert

  Dog, Bark, Old Dog

  George Herbert, Christopher Harvey, George Gilfillan (1857). “The poetical works of George Herbert”, p.325

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• Next, to make them expert in the usefullest points of grammar; and withal to season them and win them early to the love of virtue and true labour, ere any flattering seducement or vain principle seize them wandering, some easy and delightful book of education would be read to them; whereof the Greeks have store, as Cebes, Plutarch, and other Socratic discourses.

  John Milton

  Children, Book, Winning

  John Milton, James Augustus St. John, Charles Richard Sumner (1872). “The Prose Works of John Milton ...: With a Preface, Preliminary Remarks, and Notes”, p.468

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• In vain our labours are, whatsoe'er they be, unless God gives the Benediction.

  Robert Herrick

  Giving, Action, Benediction

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• When we are conscious of the least comparative merit in ourselves, we should take as much care to conceal the value we set upon it, as if it were a real defect; to be elated or vain upon it is showing your money before people in want.

  Colley Cibber

  Real, Vanity, People

  Colley Cibber (1830). “An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber, Comedian”, p.27

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• it is so difficult not to become vain about one's own good luck.

  Simone de Beauvoir

  Good Luck, Complacency, Difficult

  Simone de Beauvoir (1977). “Force of circumstance”

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• The man who is roused neither by glory nor by danger it is in vain to exhort; terror closes the ears of the mind.
  [Lat., Quem neque gloria neque pericula excitant, nequidquam hortere; timor animi auribus officit.]

  Sallust

  Fear, Men, Mind

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• 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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