The same vain desire of proving I knew more than other men, made me through life the continued victim of envy and slander.

Those who imagine they find truth in untruth, and see untruth in truth, will never arrive at truth, but follow vain desires.

But why our nature should be furnished with a propensity to consciously vain desires is a teleological problem of anthropology.

This deceit of vain desires is therefore only the result of a beneficent disposition in our nature.

He wished for a book to beguile the time, but that being a vain desire, went in to seek his former place.

She is making me crazy with this vain desire.

I will not longer consume myself in distress, in prayer, and vain desire.

This letter, sir, please believe, is not dictated by a vain desire to enjoy extravagant amusements.

They are serious and justified proposals, not escapist flights of fancy or vain utopian desires.

Her first act is to see her own reflection in a pool of water and pine for it "with vain desire" (IV.466).