“But what most showed the vanity of life
Was to behold the nations all on fire.”
Canto I, Stanza 55.
The Castle of Indolence (1748)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
James Thomson (poet) 50
Scottish writer (1700-1748) 1700–1748Related quotes

Sky-Prospect from the Plain of France.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Conversation of 1934
Personal Recollections (1981)

“If your descent is from heroic sires,
Show in your life a remnant of their fires.”
Si vous êtes sorti de ces héros fameux,
Montrez-nous cette ardeur qu'on vit briller en eux.
Satire 5, l. 43
Satires (1716)

“Quomodo sedet sola civitas. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
Epilogue
Brideshead Revisited (1945)

“I have cast fire upon the world — and behold, I guard it until it is ablaze.”
10; as quoted in Studies in the Gospel of Thomas (1960) by Robert McLachlan Wilson http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/thomas/gospelthomas10.html
Variant translations:
I have cast fire upon the world, and see, I am watching over it until it blazes.
As translated by Bentley Layton
Gospel of Thomas (c. 50? — c. 140?)

“Vanity. What's wrong with vanity? It doesn't satisfy.”
God Knows (1984)
“Life is the most spectacular show on earth”
Variant: Life is the greatest show on earth!
Source: Water for Elephants