A Quote by John Ruskin

The common practice of keeping up appearances with society is a mere selfish struggle of the vain with the vain.

John Ruskin

Quote Topics

Appearances Common Keeping Mere Practice Selfish Society Struggle Up Vain

Quote Author

John Ruskin
English - Writer
February 8, 1819 - January 20, 1900

The martyr sacrifices themselves entirely in vain. Or rather not in vain; for they make the selfish more selfish, the lazy more lazy, the narrow narrower.

Florence Nightingale

The entire deaths of Vietnam died in vain. And they're dying in vain right this very second. And you know what's worse than a soldier dying in vain? It's more soldiers dying in vain. That's what's worse.

Mike Gravel

True religion extends alike to the intellect and the heart. Intellect is in vain if it lead not to emotion, and emotion is vain if not enlightened by intellect; and both are vain if not guided by truth and leading to duty.

Tryon Edwards

In vain have oceans been squandered on you, in vain the sun, wonderfully seen through Whitman’s eyes. You have used up the years and they have used up you, and still, and still, you have not written the poem.

Jorge Luis Borges

The Lord who cannot endure vain repetitions is equally weary of vain variations.

Charles Spurgeon

All is vanity and everybody's vain. Women are terribly vain. So are men - more so, if possible.

Jerome K. Jerome

If you are vain it is vain to sign your pictures and vain not to sign them. If you are not vain it is not vain to sign them and not vain not to sign them.

Fairfield Porter

Vain, very vain, my weary search to find That bliss which only centers in the mind.

Oliver Goldsmith

Odor of blood when Christ was slain Made all Platonic tolerance vain And vain all Doric discipline.

William Butler Yeats

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

Antonio Porchia

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

Vain are the thousand creeds That move men's hearts, unutterably vain; Worthless as withered weeds, Or idlest froth amid the boundless main.

Emily Bronte

I may be a vain person, but I'm not a vain performer.

Tom Sizemore

I'm vain. My arms are thin, but I'm vain about loose flesh. And so I'm careful that what I wear will show off my best parts, which are my waist and my butt.