Alfieri was the vainest and most ostentatious of men; young, handsome, showy and eccentric, accustomed to cut a grand figure wherever he went, it must have cost him a twinge to be obliged to reduce his hitherto brilliant establishment, to dismiss nearly all his servants, to sell most of his horses, to exchange his embroidered velvets and satins for a plain black coat for the evening, and a plain blue coat for the afternoon.
"The Countess of Albany"
Violet Paget (AKA Vernon Lee)
I shall regret to my last day that I obeyed that tradition, and consecrated my most precious years to the vainest of the sciences.
"Life and Writings of Maurice Maeterlinck"
Jethro Bithell
Even the vainest will feel that however superfluous these institutions may be for themselves, they are still unhappily indispensable for some of their neighbours.
"Contemporary Socialism"
John Rae