vain

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

—Burns, Robert

Call it not vain:öthey do not err Who say, that when the Poet dies, Mute Nature mourns her worshipper, And celebrates his obsequies.

—Scott, Sir Walter

Destroy his fib, or sophistry; in vain, The creature's at his dirty work again.

—Pope, Alexander

Men are but children of a larger growth; Our appetites as apt to change as theirs, And full as craving too, and full as vain.

—Dryden,John

   He has out-soared the shadow of our night; Envyand calumnyand hate and pain, And that unrest which men miscall delight, Can touch him not and torture not again; From the contagion of the world's slow stain He is secure, and now can never mourn A heart grown cold, a head grown grey in vain.

—Shelley, Percy Bysshe

Posterity will do justice to that unprincipled maniac Gladstoneöan extraordinary mixture of envy, vindictiveness, hypocrisyand superstition and with one commanding characteristic.Whether Prime Minister or Leader of the Opposition, whether preaching, praying, speechifying, or scribblingöneveragentleman.Heisso vain that he wants to figure in history as the settler of all the great questions; but a parliamentary Constitution is not favourable to such ambitions. Things must be done by parties, not by persons using parties as tools.

—Disraeli, Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield

Whoever, in the pursuit of science, seeks after immediate practical utility may rest assured that he seeks in vain.

—Helmholtz, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

—Bible (Old Testament)

And blood in torrents pour In vainöalways in vain, For war breeds war again.

—Davidson,John

Books and the Man I sing, the first who brings The Smithfield Muses to the Ear of Kings. Say great Patricians! (since your selves inspire These wond'rous works; so Jove and Fate require) Say from what cause, in vain decry'd and curst, Still Dunce the second reigns like Dunce the first?

—Pope, Alexander

And God spake all these words, saying,Iamthe L thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that isinheaven above, or that isin the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the L thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Thoushalt nottakethename of the L thy God invain; for the L will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember thesabbath day, to keep it holy. Six daysthou shalt labour and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the L thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the L made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the L blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long uponthelandwhichtheL thy Godgiveththee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

—Bible (Old Testament)

Nothing is wasted, nothing is in vain: The seas roll over but the rocks remain.

—Herbert, SirA(lan) P(atrick)

Sir Plume, of amber snuff-box justly vain, And the nice conduct of a clouded cane.

—Pope, Alexander

Le ro" l e d'un auteur est un ro"  le assez vain; c'est celui d'un homme qui se croit en e¤  tat de donner des le c° ons au public. Et le ro"  le du critique? Il est bien plus vain encore; c'est celui d'un homme qui se croit en e¤  tat de donner des le c° ons a'   celui qui se croit en e¤  tat d'en donner au public. Therole oftheauthor isvain enough; it isthat of a person who considers himself able to give lessons to the public. And the role of the critic? It is vainer still; it is that of a person who considers himself able to give lessons to he who considers himself able to give them to the public.

—Diderot, Denis

Say not the struggle naught availeth The labour and the wounds are vain, The enemy faints not, nor faileth, And as things have been, things remain.

—Clough, Arthur Hugh

Into that sad obscure sequestered state Where God unmakes but to remake the soul He else made first in vain; which must not be.

—Browning, Robert

When vain desire at last and vain regret Go hand in hand to death, and all is vain, What shall assuage the unforgotten pain And teach the unforgetful to forget?

—Rossetti, Dante Gabriel

   Loving in truth, and vain in verse my love to show, That she (dear she) mighttake some pleasure of my pain, Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know; Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain.

—Shute, Nevil originally Nevil Shute Norway

   One day I wrote her name upon the strand, But came the waves and washe'  d it away; Again I wrote it with a second hand, But came the tide, and made my pains his prey. 'Vain man,'said she,'that doest in vain assay A mortal thing so to immortalise, For I my self shall like to this decay, And eke my name be wipe'  d out likewise.' 'Not so,'quod I,'let baser things devise To die in dust, but you shall live by fame: My verse your virtues rare shall eternise, And in the heavens write your glorious name. Where when as death shall all the world subdue, Our love shall live, and later life renew.'

—Spenser, Edmund

Vain matter is worse than vain words.

—Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans

Creep into thy narrow bed, Creep, and let no more be said! Vain thy onset! all stands fast. Thou thyself must break at last. Let the long contention cease! Geese are swans, and swans are geese. Let them have it how they will! Thou art tired; best be still.

—Arnold, Matthew

It is in vain to mislike the current fashion.

—Fuller,Thomas

What vain, unnecessary things are men, How well we do without 'em!

—Rochester,JohnWilmot, 2nd Earl of

   Alas! they had been friends in youth; But whispering tongues can poison truth; And constancy lives in realms above; And life is thorny; and youth is vain; And to be wroth with one we love Doth work like madness on the brain. 226

—Coleridge, Samuel Taylor