Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good; a shining gloss that fadeth suddenly; a flower that dies when it begins to bud; a doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower, lost, faded, broken, dead within an hour.
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.
In going on with these Experiments, how many pretty systems do we build, which we soon find ourselves oblig'd to destroy! If there is no other Use discover'd of Electricity, this, however, is something considerable, that it may help to make a vain Man humble.
An honest man speaks the truth, though it may give offence; a vain man, in order that it may.
But I feel vanity is a part of art and the non-vain are really non-artistic.
Men are just as vain as women, and sometimes even more so.
Everything is vain and tortures the spirit instead of calming and satisfying it.
Is 'fat' really the worst thing a human being can be? Is 'fat' worse than 'vindictive', 'jealous', 'shallow', 'vain', 'boring' or 'cruel'? Not to me.
Fancy brings us as many vain hopes as idle fears.
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!
Assuredly whatsoever things are fabled to exist in deep Acheron, these all exist in this life. There is no wretched Tantalus, fearing the great rock that hangs over him in the air and frozen with vain terror. Rather, it is in this life that fear of the gods oppresses mortals without cause, and the rock they fear is any that chance may bring.
Even our smallest attempts are not in vain. We know that nothing is lost.
Every year strips us of at least one vain expectation, and teaches us to reckon some solid good in its stead.
Life and death are important. Don't suffer them in vain.
Words are as recalcitrant as circus animals, and the unskilled trainer can crack his whip at them in vain.
Problems will always torment us because all important problems are insoluble: that is why they are important. The good comes from the continuing struggle to try and solve them, not from the vain hope of their solution.
Man in sooth is a marvellous, vain, fickle, and unstable subject.
It is vain to complain of fortune while we fail in policy and conduct.
Actors can be many things - vain, venal, self-serving, obnoxious, bullies - but all of the good ones are great storytellers. I wanted to watch what my actors were doing and how they were telling the story.
In the mountains of wisdom no climbing is in vain.