100+ Vain Quotes | InspiringQuotes.us

source: Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope (1845). “Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope: As Related by Herself in Conversations with Her Physician; Comprising Her Opinions and Anecdotes of Some of the Most Remarkable Persons of Her Time”, p.14

topic: Essence, Identity, Vain

And I never believed that the multitude / of dreams and many words were vain.

- Li-Young Lee

source: Li-Young Lee (1990). “The City in which I Love You: Poems”, p.57, BOA Editions, Ltd.

topic: Dream, Vain, Multitudes

I am vain, or once was, and one of my vanities was to feign that I was not.

- Lionel Shriver

topic: Vanity, Vain

Our life must once have end; in vain we fly From following Fate; e'en now, e'en now, we die.

- Lucretius

topic: Life, Fate, Vain

It is in vain for us to devise schemes by which competition can be put out of civilized life. Competition is the condition of life.

- Lyman Abbott

source: Lyman Abbott (1899). “The Life that Really is”

topic: Competition, Vain, Schemes

Blot out vain pomp; check impulse; quench appetite; keep reason under its own control.

- Marcus Aurelius

topic: Reason, Vain, Checks

As for butterflies, I can hardly conceive of one's attending upon you; but to question the congruence of the complement is vain, if it exists.

- Marianne Moore

topic: Butterfly, Vain, Congruence

I do not allow myself vain regrets or foreboding.

- Mary Boykin Chesnut

topic: Regret, Vain, Foreboding

To ask me is in vain; For who goes up your winding stair Can ne'er come down again.

- Mary Howitt

source: Mary Howitt (1834). “Sketches of natural history”, p.123

topic: Vain, Stairs, Ask Me

O strong soul, by what shore Tarriest thou now? For that force, Surely, has not been left vain!

- Matthew Arnold

topic: Strong, Soul, Vain

Knowledge is vain and fruitless which is not reduced to practice.

- Matthew Henry

topic: Practice, Vain

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

source: Max Ehrmann, “Desiderata”

topic: May, Bitter, Vain, Comparing Yourself To Others

It is vain to complain of fortune while we fail in policy and conduct.

- Norm MacDonald

topic: Complaining, Failing, Vain

I find that men are far more vain than women.

- Patricia Arquette

source: Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

topic: Men, Vain

Vain hopes are like certain dreams of those who wake.

- Quintilian

topic: Dream, Hope, Vain

They never sought in vain that sought the Lord alright!

- Robert Burns

topic: Military, Lord, Vain

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

- Robert Herrick

topic: Giving, Action, Vain, Benediction

I have a theory that evolutionary biologists are more vain than particle physicists.

- Robin Ince

topic: Vain, Theory, Physicist, Biologist

I grieve for you, how I mourn for you, who are so very dear to me, but again I can rejoice within my heart, not for nothing have I labored, neither has my exile been in vain.

- Saint Patrick

topic: Heart, Grieving, Vain

This is that rest this vain world lends, To end in death that all things ends.

- Samuel Daniel

source: Samuel Daniel (1718). “The Poetical Works of Mr. Samuel Daniel ...: To which is Prefix'd, Memoirs of His Life and Writings ...”, p.270

topic: Suicide, World, Vain

To be vain of one's rank or place is to show that one is below it.

- Stanisław I Leszczyński

topic: Class, Vain, Shows

Strength diminishes when it seems we are spending it in vain.

- Susan Glaspell

source: Susan Glaspell (1940). “The morning is near us: a novel”, Stokes

topic: Motivation, Vain, Spending

But he who dies in despair has lived his whole life in vain.

- Theodor Adorno

topic: Life, Despair, Vain

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

- Theodore Parker

topic: Loss, Evil, Vain

And weep the more, because I weep in vain.

- Thomas Gray

topic: Vain

I don't believe things happen in vain. I believe they happen for a reason.

- Tracey Gold

topic: Believe, Reason, Vain

May I not seem to have lived in vain.

- Tycho Brahe

topic: May, Vain, Last Words

No sooner have you feasted on beauty with your eyes than your mind tells you that beauty is vain and beauty passes

- Virginia Woolf

topic: Eye, Mind, Vain

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

- Voltaire

topic: Bravery, Coward, Vain, Defying

I have been vain since birth.

- Wallace Shawn

topic: Birth, Vain

For monarchs seldom sigh in vain.

- Walter Scott

topic: Royalty, Vain, Sigh, Monarchs

I don't know what a supermodel is. If they call me that, I might have to punch them. It's just so vain and so unreal.

- Waris Dirie

topic: Might, Vain, Call Me, Supermodel

Fancy brings us as many vain hopes as idle fears.

- Wilhelm von Humboldt

topic: Fancy, Vain, Idle

Our pleasance here is all vain glory, This false world is but transitory.

- William Dunbar

source: "The Life and Poems of William Dunbar".

topic: World, Glory, Vain, Transitory

It is vain to do with more what can be done with less.

- William of Ockham

topic: Simple, Done, Vain, Occam's Razor

Do what good thou canst unknown, and be not vain of what ought rather to be felt than seen.

- William Penn

topic: Deeds, Vain, Ostentation

When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain.

- William Shakespeare

topic: Thought Provoking, Vain, Power Of Words, Scarce, Lovers Meeting

But I feel vanity is a part of art and the non-vain are really non-artistic.

- Barry Webster

source: Barry Webster (2005). “The Sound of All Flesh”, p.14, The Porcupine's Quill

topic: Art, Vanity, Vain

Vain Art of the Fugue was the only one of my novels to be met with relative public recognition: it was nominated for the Prix MÃ©dicis by Alain Robbe-Grillet. Milan Kundera pocketed the prize instead and the public never clamored to buy it.

- Dumitru Tepeneag

source: Source: therumpus.net

topic: Art, Recognition, Vain, Fugue, Milan

you may call a person vain, and they will smile; you may call them immoral, and they may even feel flattered - but call them narrow-minded and they have done with you.

- J. E. Buckrose

source: Annie Edith Foster Jameson, J. E. Buckrose (1923). “What I Have Gathered”

topic: Done With You, May, Vain

Love, so many People use your Name in vain.

- Musiq

topic: People, Vain

You know you wanna do your career, but at the same time, it could end any day and there are so many things in this industry that are stupid and vain, like photo shoots every day. I have always a struggle with that.

- Uffie

topic: Stupid, Struggle, Vain

Ambition, idly vain; revenge and malice swell her train.

- Roger Penrose

topic: Revenge, Ambition, Vain

Belief unconfirmed by experiment is vain.

- Francesco Redi

topic: Belief, Vain, Experiments

If we have a heart for the magnitudes of life, it will not seem vain to believe that God Himself should guard it.

- George A. Smith

topic: Believe, Heart, Vain

Who talks much, must talk in vain.

- John Gay

source: John Gay (1863). “The Poetical Works of John Gay: With a Life of the Author”, p.5

topic: Vain

You have to ask yourself a lot of questions and probably go to therapy to make sure that you're not someone who's in love with themselves. And also if you're vain enough, then you know that is a bad look!

- Sophia Amoruso

source: Source: www.harpersbazaar.com

topic: Looks, Enough, Vain

It's in vain to recall the past, unless it works some influence upon the present.

- Charles Dickens

source: Charles Dickens (1992). “David Copperfield”, p.298, Wordsworth Editions

topic: Past, Influence, Vain

Those who are inspired by a model other than Nature, labor in vain.

- Leonardo da Vinci

topic: Inspired, Vain, Labor

O speculators about perpetual motion, how many vain chimeras have you created in the like quest? Go and take your place with the seekers after gold.

- Leonardo da Vinci

source: Leonardo (da Vinci) (1906). “Note Books: Arranged and Rendered Into English, with Introd”

topic: Gold, Quests, Vain, Speculators, Chimera

It is better to understand a part of truth and apply it to our lives than to understand nothing at all and flounder helplessly in a vain attempt to pierce the mystery of existence.

- Jawaharlal Nehru

source: Jawaharlal Nehru (1968). “Glorious thoughts of Nehru: being a treasury of over twelve thousand invaluable and inspiring thoughts, views and observations of Jawaharlal Nehru, collected from his writings and speeches and classified under four hundred subjects”

topic: Truth, Mystery, Vain

Let not thy winged days be spent in vain. Whenonce gone no gold can buy them back again.

- Abdul Kalam

topic: Gold, Gone, Vain, Back Again

flattery would be worse than vain; there is no consolation in flattery.

- Charlotte Bronte

topic: Would Be, Flattery, Vain

If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.

- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

topic: Peace, Vain, Source

Against fortune the carter cracks his whip in vain. [Fr., Centre fortune, la diverse un chartier rompit nazardes son fouet.]

- Francois Rabelais

topic: Son, Cracks, Vain

If there is no free speech, every single life has lived in vain

- Ai Weiwei

topic: Single Life, Speech, Vain

I only know we loved in vain; I only feel-farewell! farewell!

- Lord Byron

source: Lord Byron (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Lord Byron (Illustrated)”, p.381, Delphi Classics

topic: Love, Farewell, Vain

It is in vain that he seeks dominion abroad, who is not kingly at home.

- Christian Nestell Bovee

source: Christian Nestell Bovee (1871). “Summaries of Thought”

topic: Home, Dominion, Vain

I’m vain because I’m imperfect.

- Pete Doherty

source: The Sunday Times, May 14, 2006.

topic: Imperfect, Vain

There are many photos of Eisenstein. I think he was quite vain, and he liked photos of him. Being a virgin at 33 is strange now, but let's not be too high-minded about that.

- Peter Greenaway

source: "'You have naked bodies and genitalia, don't you? Why are you so adolescent?': Director Peter Greenaway on 'Puritan' Americans and the intense sex scenes in 'Eisenstein in Guanajuato'". Interview with Gary M. Kramer, www.salon.com. February 4, 2016.

topic: Thinking, Strange, Vain

We kinda hated sitcoms when we sat down and talked about this. We wanted to do something that was in the sitcom vain but totally different.

- Christopher Titus

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

topic: Down And, Different, Vain

What the sense feeleth, what the spirit discerneth, hath never its end in itself. But sense and spirit would fain persuade thee that they are the end of all things: so vain are they.

- Friedrich Nietzsche

source: Friedrich Nietzsche (2017). “THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA (Modern Classics Series): The Magnum Opus of the World’s Most Influential Philosopher, Revolutionary Thinker and the Author of The Antichrist, The Birth of Tragedy & Beyond Good and Evil”, p.37, e-artnow

topic: Spirit, Vain, Ends

Was it Gorky who had said, "If your children are no better than you are, you have fathered them in vain, indeed you have lived in vain".

- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

source: "Cancer Ward".

topic: Children, Parenting, Vain

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

- Alessandra Ambrosio

topic: Mirrors, Looks, Vain

Against stupidity, God Himself fights in vain.

- Friedrich Schiller

topic: Fighting, Stupidity, Vain

Even our smallest attempts are not in vain. We know that nothing is lost.

- Swami Vivekananda

source: Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Powers of The Mind”, p.21, editionNEXT.com

topic: Vain, Lost, Smallest

Sweet is true love, though given in vain.

- Alfred Lord Tennyson

source: Alfred Lord Tennyson (2013). “Idylls of the King”, p.159, Simon and Schuster

topic: Love, Sweet, Vain

It is no less vain to wish death than it is cowardly to fear it.

- Philip Sidney

source: Sir Philip Sidney, Jane Porter (1807). “Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks”

topic: Suicide, Wish, Vain

Blasphemous words betray the vain foolishness of the speaker.

- Philip Sidney

topic: Vain, Profanity, Betray

I buy smoked mackerel in a vain attempt at being healthy. I do actually really like it, and you don't have to cook it, which is handy.

- Jo Brand

source: "What's in your basket, Jo Brand?" by Chloe Diski, www.theguardian.com. September 9, 2001.

topic: Healthy, Vain, Mackerel, Handy

To learn without thinking is labour in vain, to think without learning is desolation.

- Confucius

source: Confucius (1996). “Le Lun Yü en français”

topic: Thinking, Vain, Desolation

Violence is just, where kindness is vain.

- Pierre Corneille

topic: Kindness, Violence, Vain

Prayer presupposes faith. No prayer is in vain. Prayer is like any other action.

- Mahatma Gandhi

source: Mahatma Gandhi (1968). “The Selected Works of Mahatma Gandhi: Satyagraha in South Africa”

topic: Prayer, Action, Vain

I never want to end up being a self-centered, vain human being.

- Taylor Swift

topic: Self, Want, Vain, Self Centered

I have lost my oil and my labor. (Labored in vain.) [Lat., Oleum et operam perdidi.]

- Plautus

topic: Oil, Vain, Lost

One says a lot in vain, refusing; The other mainly hears the "No."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

source: "Iphigenia in Tauris". Play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Act 1, Scene 3, 1786.

topic: Vain

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

topic: Waste, Courageous, Vain

An old dog barks not in vain.

- George Herbert

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

topic: Dog, Vain, Bark

I'm not vain, I'm insecure.

- Mariah Carey

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

topic: Insecure, Vain

...Je n’ai pas cessé de l’être si c’est d’être jeune que d’aimer toujours !... L’humanité n’est pas un vain mot. Notre vie est faite d’amour, et ne plus aimer c’est ne plus vivre." (I have never ceased to be young, if being young is always loving... Humanity is not a vain word. Our life is made of love, and to love no longer is to live no longer.)

- George Sand

topic: Humanity, Life Is, Vain

As some species die out, forms better adapted to utilize the obstacles against which they struggled in vain come into being.

- John Dewey

source: John Dewey (2012). “Democracy and Education”, p.7, Courier Corporation

topic: Obstacles, Vain, Form

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

- Angelus Silesius

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

topic: Christ, Vain, Born

It is vain to keep a secret from one who has a right to know it. It will tell itself.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

source: Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1317, Delphi Classics

topic: Secret, Vain, Knows

Not from a vain or shallow thought His awful Jove young Phidias brought.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

source: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1925*). “The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson in One Volume”

topic: Sculpture, Awful, Vain, Phidias

Clichés so often befall vain people.

- Ann Beattie

source: Ann Beattie (2010). “Walks With Men: Fiction”, p.13, Simon and Schuster

topic: People, Vain

Feeling well that breathed words Would all be lost, unheard, and vain as swords Against the enchased crocodile, or leaps Of grasshoppers against the sun.

- John Keats

source: John Keats (2015). “The Complete Poetry of John Keats: Ode on a Grecian Urn + Ode to a Nightingale + Hyperion + Endymion + The Eve of St. Agnes + Isabella + Ode to Psyche + Lamia + Sonnets and more from one of the most beloved English Romantic poets”, p.534, e-artnow

topic: Feelings, Sun, Vain, Grasshoppers

Nothing is made in vain, but the fly came near it.

- Mark Twain

source: Mark Twain (2009). “Mark Twain’s Book of Animals”, p.23, Univ of California Press

topic: Vain, Made

Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy.

- John Milton

source: 'Paradise Lost' (1667) bk. 2, l. 562

topic: Wisdom, Philosophy, Vain, Paradise Lost Book 2

Accuracy is, in every case, advantageous to beauty, and just reasoning to delicate sentiment. In vain would we exalt the one by depreciating the other.

- David Hume

source: David Hume (2012). “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”, p.4, Courier Corporation

topic: Sentimental, Vain, Cases

And if you find everything as soon as you look for it, you find it in vain, you look for it in vain.

- Antonio Porchia

source: "Voices". Book by Antonio Porchia, 1943.

topic: Looks, Path, Vain, Finding Your Path

Yes, one must suffer, even in vain, so as not to have lived in vain.

- Antonio Porchia

topic: Adversity, Suffering, Vain

A modest man is steady, an humble man timid, and a vain one presumptuous.

- Mary Wollstonecraft

source: Mary Wollstonecraft (1796). “A vindication of the rights of woman: with strictures on political and moral subjects”, p.275

topic: Humble, Men, Vain, Presumptuous, Vindication

I do not propose to add anything to what has already been written concerning the loss of the "Lady Vain."

- H. G. Wells

source: H. G. Wells (2015). “The Island of Dr. Moreau”, p.4, Booklassic

topic: Loss, Add, Vain

It is vain futility to analyze the algebra of time.

- Dejan Stojanovic

source: "The Creator". Book by Dejan Stojanovic (Sequence: "The Whisper of Eternity", Chapter: "The Day", p. 57), June 17, 2012.

topic: Time, Vain, Algebra

If there be ground for you to trust in your own righteousness, then, all that Christ did to purchase salvation, and all that God did to prepare the way for it is in vain.

- Jonathan Edwards

source: Jonathan Edwards (1793). “History of Redemption, on a Plan Entirely Original: Exhibiting the Gradual Discovery and Accomplishment of the Divine Purposes in the Salvation of Man, Including a Comprehensive View of Church History and the Fulfilment of Scripture Prophecies”, p.354

topic: Way, Christ, Vain, Fall Of Man

The wise needn't ask, the fool asks in vain.

- Ursula K. Le Guin

topic: Wise, Fool, Vain

Whilst I yet live, let me not live in vain.

- Joseph Addison

source: Joseph Addison (1856). “The works of Joseph Addison: including the whole contents of B. Hurd's edition, with letters and other pieces not found in any previous collection, and Macaulay's essay on his life and works”, p.460

topic: Vain, Let Me

Now a' is done that men can do, And a' is done in vain.

- Robert Burns

source: 1796 'It was a' for our rightfu' king', stanza 2.

topic: Men, Done, Vain

The life of man is but a succession of vain hopes and groundless fears.

- Baron de Montesquieu

topic: Men, Vain, Succession

Liberty a word without which all other words are vain.

- Robert Green Ingersoll

source: Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.1162, Library of Alexandria

topic: Liberty, Vain

In vain would I seek to discover Why sad and mournful am I, My thoughts without ceasing brood over A tale of the time gone by.

- Heinrich Heine

source: Heinrich Heine (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Heinrich Heine (Illustrated)”, p.321, Delphi Classics

topic: Gone, Vain, Tales, Times Gone By

If the condition of things which we were made for is not yet, what were any reality which we can substitute? We will not be shipwrecked on a vain reality.

- Henry David Thoreau

source: Henry David Thoreau, Jeffrey S. Cramer (2007). “I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau”, p.79, Yale University Press

topic: Reality, Vain, Made

Man in sooth is a marvellous, vain, fickle, and unstable subject.

- Michel de Montaigne

source: Michel de Montaigne (1853). “The Works of Michael de Montaigne: Comprising His Essays, Letters, and Journey Through Germany and Italy. With Notes from All the Commentators, Biographical and Bibliographical Notices &c., &c”, p.2

topic: Men, Fickle, Vain

Life itself was only futility, vain words, a squabble of cap and bells.

- Michel Foucault

source: Michel Foucault (2013). “Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason”, p.16, Vintage

topic: Futility Of Life, Bells, Vain, Squabbles

The terrors of truth and dart of death To faith alike are vain.

- Herman Melville

source: Herman Melville (1866). “Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War”, p.15

topic: Faith, Vain, Terror

Artists have a right to be modest and a duty to be vain.

- Karl Kraus

source: Karl Kraus (1976). “Half-truths & one-and-a-half truths: selected aphorisms”

topic: Artist, Vain, Duty

Not vain the weakest, if their force unite.

- Homer

source: Homer (1796). “The Iliad of Homer”, p.34

topic: Unity, Vain, Force

Unless we find repose within ourselves, it is vain to seek it elsewhere.

- Hosea Ballou

topic: Vain, Elsewhere, Repose

How vain is painting, which is admired for reproducing the likeness of things whose originals are not admired.

- Blaise Pascal

topic: Vanity, Painting, Vain, Reproducing

Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan his work in vain; God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain.

- William Cowper

source: 'Olney Hymns' (1779) 'Light Shining out of Darkness'

topic: Blind, God Works In Mysterious Ways, Vain, Interpreter

How vain painting is, exciting admiration by its resemblance to things of which we do not admire the originals.

- Blaise Pascal

source: Pensees no. 74 (1658)

topic: Admiration, Painting, Vain, Resemblance

How vain painting is-we admire the realistic depiction of objects which in their original state we don't admire at all.

- Blaise Pascal

topic: Painting, Realistic, Vain, Depiction

I thought that he was righteous, but he's vain. Oh, somethings a telling me I wear the ball and chain.

- Bob Dylan

source: Song: Abandoned Love, Album: Biograph

topic: Balls, Vain, Chains

In vain he seeketh others to suppress, Who hath not learn'd himself first to subdue.

- Edmund Spenser

source: Edmund Spenser (1715). “The Works of Mr. Edmund Spenser”, p.872

topic: Firsts, Vain, Temper

People who are very vain are usually equally susceptible; and they who feel one thing acutely, will so feel another.

- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

topic: Vanity, People, Vain

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

- Edward Gibbon

topic: People, Rebellious, Vain

Polite diseases make some idiots vain, Which, if unfortunately well, they feign.

- Edward Young

source: Edward Young, Thomas Park (1808). “The Poetical Works of Edward Young: In Four Volumes. Collated with the Best Editions:”, p.107

topic: Disease, Idiot, Vain

Why, all delights are vain; but that most vain, Which, with pain purchas'd, doth inherit pain.

- William Shakespeare

source: William Shakespeare (2015). “Peines d’amour perdues”, p.38, Editions Gallimard

topic: Pain, Delight, Vain

I've been accused of being very vain about my apathy.

- Bret Easton Ellis

topic: Apathy, Vain, Accused

This life has been given to you for repentance; do not waste it in vain pursuits.

- Isaac of Nineveh

topic: Waste, Repentance, Vain

Either still I find Some imperfection in the chosen theme, Or see of absolute accomplishment Much wanting, so much wanting, in myself, That I recoil and droop, and seek repose In listlessness from vain perplexity, Unprofitably travelling towards the grave.

- William Wordsworth

source: 'The Prelude' (1850) bk. 1, l. 265

topic: Accomplishment, Imperfection, Vain, Perplexity

Faith's most severe tests come not when we see nothing, but when we see a stunning array of evidence that seems to prove our faith vain.

- Elisabeth Elliot

topic: Tests, Vain, Stunning

To hear complaints with patience, even when complaints are vain, is one of the duties of friendship.

- Samuel Johnson

source: Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.32

topic: Patience, Be Patient, Vain

And panting Time toil'd after him in vain.

- Samuel Johnson

source: James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, Edmond Malone (1824). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., Comprehending an Account of His Studies, and Numerous Works, in Chronological Order: A Series of His Epistolary Correspondence and Conversations with Many Eminent Persons; and Various Original Pieces of His Composition, Never Before Published; the Whole Exhibiting a View of Literature and Literary Men in Great Britain, for Near Half a Century During which He Flourished”, p.22

topic: Time, Toil, Vain

Quack: A boastful pretender to arts which he does not understand. A vain boastful pretender to physick; An artful, tricking practitioner in physick.

- Samuel Johnson

source: Samuel Johnson (1839). “Dictionary of the English Language ...”

topic: Art, Doe, Vain, Quacks, Pretender

Mitt der Dummheit k a« mpfen G o« tter selbst vergebens. Even the gods themselves struggle in vain against stupidity.

- Elsa Schiaparelli

topic: Struggle, Stupidity, Vain

I'm glad I haven't lived in vain.

- Saul Bellow

source: "In Bellow's shadow" by Jamie Allen, www.cnn.com. November 27, 2000.

topic: Aging, Vain, Glad