flattery would be worse than vain; there is no consolation in flattery..

And if you find everything as soon as you look for it, you find it in vain, you look for it in vain..

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

It is vain to keep a secret from one who has a right to know it. It will tell itself..

Blasphemous words betray the vain foolishness of the speaker..

Nature makes nothing incomplete, and nothing in vain..

Nothing makes one so vain as being told that one is a sinner..

O speculators about perpetual motion, how many vain chimeras have you created in the like quest? Go and take your place with the seekers after gold..

It is vain to complain of fortune while we fail in policy and conduct..

In vain will you fly from one vice if in your wilfulness you embrace another..

It is in vain that he seeks dominion abroad, who is not kingly at home..

Our life must once have end; in vain we fly From following Fate; e'en now, e'en now, we die..