vain Quotes

“It seemed to him that the Power in which he had vainly trusted among the streets and in the prayer-meetings, was very far away from this land in which he had taken refuge.”

″‘Tis well, Lavinia, that thou hast no hands; For hands to do Rome service is but vain.”

“A livelihood. I do not preach in vain. THere’s no apostle I would conterfeit; I mean to have money, wool and cheese and wheat”

“But the man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less cocksure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable Mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend.”

“But sometimes illumination comes to our rescue at the very moment when all seems lost; we have knocked at every door and they open on nothing until, at last, we stumble unconsciously against the only one through which we can enter the kingdom we have sought in vain a hundred years - and it opens.”

“This it was that gave me a thought. No apology could blot out what I had said; it was needless to think of one, none could cover the offense; but where an apology was vain, a mere cry for help might bring Alan back to my side. I put my pride away from me. ‘Alan!’ I said; ‘if ye cannae help me, I must just die here.’ ”

“You would never have found out how extraordinary it was if it hadn’t hindered you from doing what you wanted to do. You see how self-love keeps us from knowing our own defects of mind and body. Our reason tries in vain to show them to us; we refuse to see them till we find them in the way of our interests.”

“Maria, though decidedly vain and much too inquisitive, was possessed of the fine qualities of honour and courage and fastidiousness, and Miss Heliotrope was entirely made of love and patience.”

“it was quite in vain that the agent hinted at promptness—”

“that’s not it! Better... imagine—yes, it’is certainly better—imagine that I am vain, envious, malicious, base, vindictive and... well, perhaps with a tendency to insanity.