Mary Beard sometimes protests a little too much that, beneath all their militaristic vainglory, the Romans shared the same concerns and anxieties about war as we do.
Christopher Hart, The Independent, 18 November 2007, The Independent
reviewing Mary Beard's The Roman Triumph. Amazon
Have you ever met anyone, by the way, who admitted that they exhibited at flower shows for reasons of vainglory, unhealthy competitiveness or a desire to show off to their neighbours?
Many great rock bands are smart people flying into dumbness - or, to be more charitable, cultivating a derangement of the senses that spills over into vainglory, grandiosity, frippery, pretension and sentimentality.
Ben Ratliff, The New York Times, 28 November 2005. New York Times
I want to thank the veteran playwright for his legerdemain - his narrative skill, his sense of fun, his love of music, and his ability to turn a threadbare theatrical trope into a surprising, complex gesture whose combination of vainglory and nihilism conveys unsettling but genuine exhilaration.
Faith, hope, and lunacy. Miles they measure not as sporting units of joy, like goals or wickets or bullseyes, but as miles of pain and suffering - and shameless vainglory.
Frank Keating, The Guardian, 17 April 2007. Guardian
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do ... Explore. Dream. Discover" - Mark Twain
