Ecclesiastes said that "all is vanity,"
Most modern preachers say the same, or show it
By their examples of true Christianity:
In short, all know, or very soon may know it.
Sooth'd with the sound, the king grew vain:
Fought all his battles o'er again;
And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he
slew the slain.
Dryden—Alexander's Feast. L. 66.
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
Ecclesiastes. I. 2; XII. 8.
All is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Ecclesiastes. I. 14.
Vanity is as ill at ease under indifference as
tenderness is under a love which it cannot return.
George Eliot—Daniel Deronda. Bk. I. Ch.
X.
How many saucy airs we meet,
From Temple Bar to Aldgate street!
Gay—The Barley-Mow and Dunghill. L. 1.
Vain? Let it be so! Nature was her .teacher,
What if a lovely and unsistered creature
Loved her own harmless gift of pleasing feature.
Holmes—Iris, Her Book. The Professor at
the Breakfast-Table. X.
On parle peu quand la vanity ne fait pas parler.
We say little if not egged on by vanity.
La Rochefoucauld—Maximes. 137.
Ce qui nous rend la vanity des autres insupportable, c'est qu'elle blesse la ndtre.
That which makes the vanity of others unbearable to us is that which wounds our own.
La Rochefoucauld—Maximes. 389.
"Vanitas vanitatum" has rung in the ears
Of gentle and simple for thousands of years;
The wail still is heard, yet its notes never scare
Either simple or gentle from Vanity Fair.
Frederick Locker-Lampson—Vanity Fair.
What is your sex's earliest, latest care,
Your heart's supreme ambition? To be fair.
Lord Lyttleton—Advice to a Lady. L. 17.
And not a vanity is given in vain.
| author = Pope
| work = Essay on Man.
| place = Ep. II. L. 290.
Here files of pins extend their shining rows,
Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billelxioux.
| author = Pope
| work = Rape of the Lock. Canto I. L. 137.
Every man at his best state is altogether vanity.
Psalms. XXXIX. 5.
Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men
of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance they are altogether lighter than vanity.
Psalms. LXII. 9.
Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity—
That is not quickly buzz'd into his ears?
Richard II. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 24.
Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,
Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.
Richard II. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 38.
Hoy-day, what a sweep of vanity comes this
way!
Timon of Athens. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 137.
II est difficile d'estimer quelqu'un comme il
veut l'£tre.
It is difficult to esteem a man as highly as
he would wish.
Vauvenargues—Reflexions. LXVII.
Maud Muller looked and sighed: "Ah me!
That I the Judge's bride might be!
He would dress me up in silks so fine,
And praise and toast me at his wine."
Whittcek—Maud Muller. L. 35.
Meek Nature's,evening comment on the shows
That for oblivion take their daily birth
From all the fuming vanities of earth.
Wordsworth—Sonnet. Sky. Prospect from
the Plain of France.
VARIETY
| seealso = (See also {{sc|Novelty)
Amidst the soft variety I'm lost.
| author = Addison
| work = Letter from Italy. L. 100.
The earth was made so various, that the mind
Of desultory man, studious of change
And pleased with novelty, might be indulged.
Variety's the very spice of life,
That gives it all its flavour.
The variety of all tilings forms a pleasure.
Euripides—Orestes. 234.
Variety's the source of joy below,
From whence still fresh-revolving pleasures flow,
In books and love the mind one end pursues,
And only change the expiring flame renews.
Gay—Epistles. To Bernard Lintot, on a Miscellany of Poems.
Countless the various species of mankind,
Countless the shades which sep'rate mind from
mind;
No general object of desire is known,
Each has his will, and each pursues his own.
Wm. Gifford—Perseus.
All concord's born of contraries.
Ben Jonson—Cynthia's Revels. Act V. Sc. 2.
Diversity, c'est ma devise.
Diversity, that is my motto.
La Fontaine—Pate' d'AnguiUe.
