On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.
Friedrich Nietzsche
106 quotes about vain follow in order of popularity. Be sure to bookmark and share your favorites!
Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain.
John F. Kennedy
When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain.
William Shakespeare
Praise from the common people is generally false, and rather follows the vain than the virtuous.
Sir Francis Bacon
It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.
Charlotte Bronte
How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.
Henry David Thoreau
I'm not a vain person at all.
Kristen Cruz
He does not live in vain; who employs his wealth, his thought, and his speech to advance the good of others.
Hindu Proverb
With stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain.
Friedrich von Schiller
It is vain to talk of the interest of the community, without understanding what is the interest of the individual.
Jeremy Bentham
Half of the secular unrest and dismal, profane sadness of modern society comes from the vain ideas that every man is bound to be a critic for life.
Henry Van Dyke
I wouldn't write anything autobiographical. If you've lived a life like Laurence of Arabia, it might be a consideration, but otherwise it's a little bit vain, it seems to me.
James Lee Burke
We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don't care for.
Marie Ebner von Eschenbach
It makes me angry. My son did not die in vain. And I don't believe that her son died in vain either.
Janet Norwood
Coretta Scott King will be missed. Her work and her life was not in vain because of the sacrifices she made and because of the rights we have today. I've seen a lot of improvement in America.
Hana Stith
One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us.
Kurt Vonnegut
She was Anna and that was it. There was not a vain bone in her body. She dressed simply, but always in good taste. She never gossiped. And she was appreciative of whatever was done for her.
Helen Linhart
Oh sure, Ray loves to get his hair cut. Loves it. He's still vain that way. He wouldn't dream of going anywhere without going to the barbershop. Whenever he'd go to New York, that was the first thing he'd do.
Sid Lockitch
There flows throughout our whole history a stream of humanity, of generosity, of tolerance, so broad, so powerful, and so pure that it would be vain indeed to look for a similar one in the past of any other European country.
Ignace Paderewski
The Lord told me this is where to go, not to go to the pros but to go to college and to go here. So I can't have any regret. If you do, your faith is in vain.
Jason Fraser
During my life I have seen, known, and lost too much to be the prey of vain dread; and, as for the hope of immortality, I am as weary of that as I am of gods and kings. For my own sake only I write this; and herein I differ from all other writers, past and to come.
Mika Waltari
I pray thee leave, love me no more, / Call home the heart you gave me, / I but in vain the saint adore, / That can, but will not, save me.
Michael Drayton
Mathematicians have tried in vain to this day to discover some order in the sequence of prime numbers, and we have reason to believe that it is a mystery into which the human mind will never penetrate.
Leonhard Euler
The promises of this world are, for the most part, vain phantoms; and to confide in one's self, and become something of worth and value is the best and safest course.
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Nothing so soothes our vanity as a display of greater vanity in others; it make us vain, in fact, of our modesty.
Louis Kronenberger
We just want something good to come out of this. We don't want my mother to have died in vain.
Marilyn Shoemaker
All speech is vain and empty unless it be accompanied by action.
Demosthenes
People who don't know me lower their eyes in embarrassment when the Lord's name is taken in vain in my presence.
Sister Parish
Tell her, if you wiil, that sorrow / Need not come in vain; / Tell her that the lesson taught her / Far outweighs the pain.
Adelaide Anne Procter
I was greedy, vain, selfish and took bad advice from financial professionals I trusted.
Dale Brown
It these broken utterances can in any way help to a clearer vision and a truer pulse-beat in studying the Nation's Problem, this Voice by a Black Woman of the South will not have been raised in vain.
Anna Julia Cooper
Men are just as vain as women, and sometimes even more so.
Helena Rubinstein
Unless man is committed to the belief that all mankind are his brothers, then he labors in vain and hypocritically in the vineyards of equality.
Adam Clayton
Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.
Friedrich von Schiller
To become Christ-like is the only thing in the whole world worth caring for, the thing before which every ambition of man is folly and all lower achievement vain.
Henry Drummond
What avails love when life is so ephemeral?What avaiIs a mortal's love for the immortal?Love that is snuffed out by death's passing blastLove without the pain, the passion that consumes?A flickering spark I am, aglow for a fleeting glanceFlow vain for a flickering spark to chase an eternal flame!Grant me the bliss of eternal life, O Lord,And mine w.
Allama Iqbal
WASHINGTONIAN, n. A Potomac tribesman who exchanged the privilege of governing himself for the advantage of good government. In justice to him it should be said that he did not want to. They took away his vote and gave instead The right, when he had earned, to _eat_ his bread. In vain -- he clamors for his 'boss,' pour soul, To come again and part him from his roll. .
Ambrose Bierce
Wisdom and spirit of the Universe! Thou soul is the eternity of thought! That giv'st to forms and images a breath And everlasting motion! Not in vain By day or star-light thus from by first dawn Of childhood didst thou intertwine for me The passions that build up our human soul, Not with the mean and vulgar works of man, But with high objects, with enduring things.
William Wordsworth
Most men remember obligations, but are not often likely to be grateful; the proud are made sour by the remembrance and the vain silent.
William Gilmore Simms
The finest words in the world are only vain sounds if you cannot understand them.
Anatole France
The retaliation is coming and the blood of our beloved people will not go in vain. We will be happy to hear the news when our fighters succeed and get revenge for their blood.
Nizar Rayan
I don't want my son to die in vain. You see, all young black men are not involved in drugs, gangs and violence. I don't want my son's case to end up like his father's.
Vinnie Norvell
Losing a part of your body is hard. I never thought I would be so vain, but I felt freaky, like I wasn't a woman any longer.
Peggy Jenkins
The whole point of being an actor is to get satisfaction out of a role - unless you're just vain about celebrity.
Jonny Lee Miller
We haven't been listening to legal immigrants. We've been taking their name in vain.
Sandy Close
Ladies and gentlemen, there are moments in the lives of nations and peoples when it is incumbent upon those known for their wisdom and clarity of vision to survey the problem, with all its complexities and vain memories, in a bold drive toward new ho.
Anwar Sadat
For three-and-a-half hours the doctors tried to save baby Jenna, but it was all in vain. Later the hospital gave Melissa a card with the baby's footprint on it and a lock of hair.
Alvin Best
My baby was murdered. Don't let my baby's death be in vain.
Gina Jones
No rules exist, and examples are simply life-savers answering the appeals of rules making vain attempts to exist.
Andre Breton
A vain, idle and sinful game at which there was much of the language of the accursed going on.
James Hogg
But even if we would execute perfectly on our corporate strategy, unless we have the right channels to the market to bridge the last few meters to the consumer, it's all in vain.
David Steel
In this shadow of unconscionable strife and infamy, we come here today to shed light, ... We dedicate ourselves to this hallowed ground such that they may never be forgotten, and their lives may not have been given in vain.
Jim Mcgreevey
Worry not about the possible troubles of the future; for if they come, you are but anticipating and adding to their weight; and if they do not come, your worry is useless; and in either case it is weak and in vain, and a distrust of God's providence.
Hugh Blair
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Max Ehrman
The purposes are lost. They need to come home. Right now, they're sitting ducks and our troops are going to die in vain.
Linda Thomas
Our pleasance here is all vain glory, This false world is but transitory.
William Dunbar
In life there is nothing more unexpected and surprising than the arrivals and departures of pleasure. If we find it in one place to-day, it is vain to seek it there to-morrow. You can not lay a trap for it.
Alexander Smith
Nothing is wasted, nothing is in vain: / The seas roll over but the rocks remain.
A. P. Herbert
Every writer is a narcissist. This does not mean that he is vain; it only means that he is hopelessly self-absorbed.
Leo Rosten
Against stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain. (Mit der Dummheit kaempfen Goetter selbst vergebens).
Friedrich von Schiller
The soul is made for action, and cannot rest till it be employed. Idleness is its rust. Unless it will up and think and taste and see, all is in vain.
Robert Townsend
You will find rest from vain fancies if you perform every act in life as though it were your last.
Marcus Aurelius
When I read of the vain discussions of the present day about the Virgin Birth and other old dogmas which belong to the past, I feel how great the need is still of a real interest in the religion which builds up character, teaches brotherly love, and opens up to the seeker such a world of usefulness and the beauty of holiness.
Olympia Brown
If I can stop one Heart from breaking I shall not live in vain If I can ease one Life the Aching, or cool one Pain, Or help one fainting Robin into his Nest again, I shall not live in Vain.
Emily Dickinson
Looks are temporary and don't mirror what's inside. And usually, a great looking man is so vain. Maybe most good-looking women are too. I hope I'm not!
Dorothy Stratten
If the Constitution is worth anything, if the Declaration of Independence is worth anything, if the boys who died on the field of battle did not die in vain, fair employment practices are correct and necessary.
Dennis Chavez
We love Nelson because, like real heroes, he was not perfect. He could be vain and he had his flaws - he even suffered from seasickness. But he was brave and inspired the deepest loyalty, and when it mattered he got it right.
Admiral Sir Alan West
Observe this, that tho a woman swear, forswear, lie, dissemble, back-bite, be proud, vain, malicious, anything, if she secures the main chance, she's still virtuous; that's a maxim.
George Farquhar
You got a lot of smoke, and not a lot of fire. Everybody's out front taking money and at least using Bill's name in vain. But there's been very little, if any, connection to Bill.
Bruce Harvey
A flower, when offered in the bud,/ is no vain sacrifice.
Isaac Watts
The cry of the Little Peoples goes up to God in vain, / For the world is given over to the cruel sons of Cain.
Richard Le Gallienne
We have tried to reach a settlement through good faith negotiations and regret that our efforts have been in vain. Apple and the Beatles are, once again, left with no choice but to sue EMI.
Neil Aspinall
I would like to get a hold of their families and maybe this will give them a little closure, ... to know that their fallen sons' sacrifices weren't totally in vain and that at least somebody recognized what they did for us.
Tony Anderson
Aspiring to these wide generalizations, the analysis of quadratic functions soars to a pitch from whence it may look proudly down on the feeble and vain attempts of geometry proper to rise to its level or to emulate it in its flights.
James Joseph Sylvester
In God's world, for those who are in earnest, there is no failure. No work truly done, no word earnestly spoken, no sacrifice freely made, was ever made in vain.
Frederick W. Robertson
Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all.
Thomas S. Szasz
Sweet is true love that is given in vain, and sweet is death that takes away pain.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
They deserve attention from the world, so they will not have died in vain.
Joseph Wong
SIREN, n. One of several musical prodigies famous for a vain attempt to dissuade Odysseus from a life on the ocean wave. Figuratively, any lady of splendid promise, dissembled purpose and disappointing performance.
Ambrose Bierce
On that day let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that all their efforts shall not have been in vain.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
You're So Vain.
Carly Simon
They may require you to do something in the play that would be against those principles, for example, partial nudity or some moral issue. They may ask you to use God's name in vain.
Nicky Chavers
The praise that comes from love does not make us vain, but more humble.
James M. Barrie
Of all pains, the greatest pain Is to love, and love in vain.
George Granville
That they (the powers of heaven) may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover• our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion• or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw• themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved.
Dr. Joseph Smith
Most bad books get that way because their authors are engaged in trying to justify themselves. If a vain author is an alcoholic, then the most sympathetically portrayed character in his book will be an alcoholic. This sort of thing is very boring for outsiders.
Stephen Vizinczey
But if they were intended to drive down the sugar price, it is misleading and will be largely in vain.
Yu Mengguo
Whatever you do for the sole purpose of having others admire you, your efforts will most likely be in vain.
Dave Pelzer
Fight for your highest attainable aim/ But never put up resistance in vain.
Dr. Hans Selye
Men are getting more vain. There's more pressure to look young and sexy. Even young boys are waxing their bodies to be hairless.
Marian Salzman
Far from mortal cares retreating, Sordid hopes and vain desires, Here, our willing footsteps meeting, Every heart to heaven aspires.
Jane Taylor
I'm not so young as you are vain!
Veronica Franco
Living Life Tomorrow's fate, though thou be wise, Thou canst not tell nor yet surmise; Pass, therefore, not today in vain, For it will never come again.
Omar Khayyam
Let's make the best of the situation / Before I finally go insane. / Please don't say we'll never find a way / And tell me all my love's in vain.
Eric Clapton
If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.
Emily Dickinson
Yet with great toil all that I can attain by long experience, and in learned schools, is for to know my knowledge is but vain, and those that think them wise, are greatest fools.
William Alexander
This is a political and social triumph as well as a union triumph and shows that our struggle has not been in vain.
Evo Morales
It helps them refocus, just like Ken and I are, on insisting that some purpose be made out of this, ... Because we can't let her die in vain. We just can't. And they agree with that, and it's hard.
Erin Runnion
One cannot long remain so absorbed in contemplation of emptiness without being increasingly attracted to it. In vain one bestows on it the name of infinity; this does not change its nature. When one feels such pleasure in non-existence, one's inclination can be completely satisfied only by completely ceasing to exist.
Emile Durkheim
His daughter returned from her boarding school, improved in fashionable airs and expert in manufacturing fashionable toys; but, in her conversation, he sought in vain for that refined and fertile mind which he had fondly expected.
Emma Willard
Ah, Moon of my Delight who know'st no wane, / The Moon of Heav'n is rising once again: / How oft hereafter rising shall she look;/ Through this same Garden after me - in vain!
Edward Fitzgerald
Vexed sailors cursed the rain, for which poor shepherds prayed in vain.
Edmund Waller
Copyright © 2024 Electric Goat Media. All Rights Reserved.