I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think vainly, flattered myself that, without very much bloodshed, it might be done. - John Brown
Life may be lived with a veil vainly attempting to hide its truth. The Painted Veil, as Somerset Maugham called it, does fade with time, if not raised earlier. If anything is more pathetic than its former self, it is the faded veil. - R. N. Prasher
A critic is a gong at a railroad crossing clanging loudly and vainly as the train goes by. - Christopher Morley