Sentence examples for vain desire from inspiring English sources
"vain desire" is correct and usable in written English
It can be used to describe a desire or longing that is futile, empty, or without purpose. Example: Despite her efforts, she couldn't shake off the vain desire to reunite with her ex-boyfriend.
He certainly wrote his diaries for publication, to fulfil "in part, at least, a contemptible, vain desire for immortality", which he probably achieved.
In "Insider Baseball", the best essay ever written on the problem with the Joe Kleins of the world, Joan Didion suggests that political journalists are driven by a vain desire to be near power and to themselves wield power by shaping the public storyline of politics and the reputations of its vain main characters.
This event closed the first period of his life, during which he was, on his own admission, "a man given to the vanities of the world, whose chief delight consisted in martial exercises, with a great and vain desire to win renown" (Autobiography, 1).
If human unhappiness stemmed only from vain desires and worldly dangers, this wisdom, founded upon prudence alone, would suffice.
They will say that businesses are not satisfying our real needs, they are merely exciting us to vain desires.
And which are absolutely distinct from "vain desires" — aka passing fancies or things we wish for "in an idle way".
And while de Botton conceded it may be "on the whole a little bit harder to make money from genuine needs than vain desires", he argued the potential rewards are worth the extra effort — given the contribution more virtuous businesses can make to those who build them and the people the businesses serve.
Awaiting the people's call in dignified silence, he feared any statement could be "construed into a vain-glorious desire of pushing myself into notice as a candidate".
The wealthy, says Smith, spend their days establishing an "economy of greatness," one founded on "luxury and caprice" and fueled by "the gratification of their own vain and insatiable desires".
What we imagine may not exist, our beliefs can be false, our desires vain and unfulfilled.
In the film, similar to the Brothers Grimm story, the Queen is cold, cruel, and extremely vain, and obsessively desires to remain the "fairest in the land".
