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Fame: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
Were not this desire of fame very strong, the difficulty of obtaining it, and the danger of losing it when obtained, would be sufficient to deter a man from so vain a pursuit.— ADDISON — The Spectator. No. 255.
Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar!— BEATTIE — The Minstrel. St. 1.
Nothing can cover his high fame but Heaven: No pyramids set off his memories But the eternal substance of his greatness; To which I leave him.— BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER — The False One. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 169.
The best-concerted schemes men lay for fame. Die fast away: only themselves die faster. The far-fam'd sculptor, and the laurell'd bard, Those bold insurancers of deathless fame, Supply their little feeble aids in vain.— BLAIR — The Grave. L. 185.
Herostratus lives that burnt the temple of Diana; he is almost lost that built it.— SIR THOMAS BROWNE — Hydriotaphia. Ch. V.
Folly loves the martyrdom of fame.— BYRON — Monody on the Death of Sheridan. L. 68. L. 68.
I awoke one morning and found myself famous.— BYRON — From his Life by Moore.
O Fame!-if I e'er took delight in thy praises, 'Twas less for the sake of thy high-sounding phrases, Than to see the bright eyes of the dear one discover She thought that I was not unworthy to love her.— BYRON — Stanzas Written on the Road
Between Florence and Pisa. What is the end of Fame? 'tis but to fill A certain portion of uncertain paper: Some liken it to climbing up a hill, Whose summit, like all hills, is lost in vapour: For this men write, speak, preach, and heroes kill, And bards burn what they call their "midnight taper," To have, when the original is dust, A name, a wretched picture, and worse bust.— BYRON — Don Juan. Canto I. St. 218.
Who hath not owned, with rapture-smitten frame, The power of grace, the magic of a name?— CAMPBELL — Pleasures of Hope. Pt. II. L. 5.
Fame, we may understand, is no sure test of merit, but only a probability of such: it is an accident, not a property of a man.— CARLYLE — Essay. Goethe.
Scarcely two hundred years back can Fame recollect articulately at all; and there she but maunders and mumbles.— CARLYLE — Past and Present. Ch. XVII.
Men the most infamous are fond of fame, And those who fear not guilt, yet start at shame.— CHURCHILL — The Author. L. 233.
The aspiring youth that fired the Ephesian dome Outlives, in fame, the pious fool that rais'd it.— COLLEY CIBBER — Richard III. (Altered.) Act III. Sc. 1.
Where's Cæsar gone now, in command high and able? Or Xerxes the splendid, complete in his table? Or Tully, with powers of eloquence ample? Or Aristotle, of genius the highest example?— ABRAHAM COLES — Trans. of
De Contemptu Mundi (Jacopone, XIII. Century) "Old Gems in New Settings." P. 75. I am not the rose, but I have lived near the rose.— H. B. CONSTANT — See Hayward's
Introduction to The Autobiography and Letters of Mrs. Piozzi. What shall I do to be forever known, And make the age to come my own?— COWLEY — The Motto. L. 1.
S. Who fears not to do ill yet fears the name, And free from conscience, is a slave to fame.— SIR JOHN DENHAM — Cooper's Hill. L. 129.
The Duke of Wellington brought to the post of first minister immortal fame; a quality of success which would almost seem to include all others.— BENJ. DISRAELI — Sybil. Bk. I. Ch. III.
Fame then was cheap, and the first courier sped; And they have kept it since, by being dead.— DRYDEN — The Conquest of Grenada.
Epilogue. Then Naldo: "'Tis a petty kind of fame At best, that comes of making violins; And saves no masses, either. Thou wilt go To purgatory none the less."— GEORGE ELIOT — Stradivarius. L. 85.
Here once the embattl'd farmers stood And fired the shot heard round the world.— EMERSON — Hymn. Concord Fight.
Fame is the echo of actions, resounding them to the world, save that the echo repeats only the last part, but fame relates all, and often more than all.— FULLER — The Holy and Profane States.
Of Fame. From kings to cobblers 'tis the same; Bad servants wound their master's fame. C.— GAY — Fables. The Squire and his Cur. Pt. II.
Some village Hampden, that, with dauntless breast, The little tyrant of his fields withstood, Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.— GRAY — Elegy in a Country Churchyard. St. 15.
One of the few, the immortal names, That were not born to die.— FITZ — GREENE HALLECK-Marco
Bozzaris. The temple of fame stands upon the grave: the flame that burns upon its altars is kindled from the ashes of dead men.— HAZLITT — Lectures on The English
Poets. Lecture VIII. Thou hast a charmed cup, O Fame! A draught that mantles high, And seems to lift this earthly frame Above mortality. Away! to me a woman-bring Sweet water from affection's spring.— MRS. HEMANS — Woman and Fame.
If that thy fame with ev'ry toy be pos'd, 'Tis a thin web, which poysonous fancies make; But the great souldier's honour was compos'd Of thicker stuf, which would endure a shake. Wisdom picks friends; civility playes the rest; A toy shunn'd cleanly passeth with the best.— HERBERT — The Temple. The Church Porch. St. 38.
Seven cities warr'd for Homer being dead, Who living had no roofe to shroud his head.— THOS. HEYWOOD — Hierarchie of the
Blessed Angells. But sure the eye of time beholds no name, So blest as thine in all the rolls of fame.— HOMER — Odyssey. Bk. XI. L. 591.
Pope's trans. Earth sounds my wisdom, and high heaven my fame.— HOMER — Odyssey. Bk. IX. L. 20.
Pope's trans.
Short is my date, but deathless my renown.— HOMER — Iliad. Bk. IX. L. 535.
Pope's trans. The life, which others pay, let us bestow, And give to fame what we to nature owe.— HOMER — Iliad. Bk. XII. L. 393.
Pope's trans. The rest were vulgar deaths unknown to fame.— HOMER — Iliad. Bk. XI. L. 394.
Pope's trans. Under the shadow of a leafy bough That leaned toward a singing rivulet, One pure white stone, whereon, like crown on brow, The image of the vanished star was set; And this was graven on the pure white stone In golden letters - "WHILE SHE LIVED SHE SHONE."— JEAN INGELOW — The Star's Monument. St. 47.
Fame has no necessary conjunction with praise: it may exist without the breath of a word: it is a recognition of excellence which must be felt but need not be spoken. Even the envious must feel it: feel it, and hate it in silence.— MRS. JAMESON — Memoirs and Essays.
Washington Allston. Reputation being essentially contemporaneous, is always at the mercy of the Envious and the Ignorant. But Fame, whose very birth is posthumous, and which is only known to exist by the echo of its footsteps through congenial minds, can neither be increased nor diminished by any degree of wilfulness.— MRS. JAMESON — Memoirs and Essays.
Washington Allst. He left the name, at which the world grew pale, To point a moral, or adorn a tale.— SAM'L JOHNSON — Vanity of Human Wishes. L. 221
I never have sought the world; the world was not to seek me.— S. SAM'L JOHNSON — Boswell's Life of
Johnson. 1783. Building nests in Fame's great temple, As in spouts the swallows build.— LONGFELLOW — Nuremberg. St. 16.
Fame comes only when deserved, and then is as inevitable as destiny, for it is destiny. и.— LONGFELLOW — Hyperion. Bk. I. Ch. VIII.
His fame was great in all the land.— LONGFELLOW — Tales of a Wayside Inn.
The Student's Tale. Emma and Eginhard. L. 50. Fame lulls the fever of the soul, and makes Us feel that we have grasp'd an immortality.— JOAQUIN MILLER — Ina. Sc. 4. L. 273.
Fame, if not double fac'd, is doubled mouth'd, And with contrary blast proclaims most deeds; On both his wings, one black, the other white, Bears greatest names in his wild aery flight.— MILTON — Samson Agonistes. L. 971.
Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil.— MILTON — Lycidas. L. 78.
Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise, (That last infirmity of noble mind) To scorn delights, and live laborious days; But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, And think to burst out into sudden blaze, Comes the blind Fury with th' abhorred shears, And slits the thin-spun life.— MILTON — Lycidas. L. 70.
I'll make thee glorious by my pen And famous by my sword.— MARQUIS OF MONTROSE — My Dear and
Only Love. (See also Scott- Legend of Montrose. Ch. XV.) Go where glory waits thee; But while fame elates thee, Oh! still remember me.— MOORE — GO Where Glory Waits Thee.
Who grasp'd at earthly fame, Grasped wind: nay, worse, a serpent grasped that through His hand slid smoothly, and was gone; but left A sting behind which wrought him endless pain.— POLLOK — Course of Time. Bk. III. L. 533.
Above all Greek, above all Roman fame.— POPE — Epistles of Horace. Ep. I. Bk. II. L. 26.
All crowd, who foremost shall be damn'd to fame.— POPE — The Dunciad. Bk. III. L. 158.
And what is Fame? the Meanest have their Day, The Greatest can but blaze, and pass away.— POPE — First Book of Horace. Ep. VI. L. 46.
If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shin'd, The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind: Or, ravish'd with the whistling of a name, See Cromwell, damn'd to everlasting fame.— POPE — Essay on Man. Ep. IV. L. 281.
Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame, Do good by stealth, and blush to find it Fame.— POPE — Epilogue to Satire. Dialogue I. L. 135.
Nor fame I slight, nor for her favors call; She comes unlooked for, if she comes at all.— POPE — Temple of Fame. L. 513.
Unblemish'd let me live or die unknown; Oh, grant an honest fame, or grant me none!— POPE — Temple of Fame. L. 523.
What's fame? a fancy'd life in others' breath. A thing beyond us, e'en before our death.— POPE — Essay on Man. Ep. IV. L. 237.
Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife! To all the sensual world proclaim, One crowded hour of glorious life Is worth an age without a name.— SCOTT — Old Mortality. Ch. XXXIV.
Great Homer's birthplace seven rival cities claim, Too mighty such monopoly of Fame.— THOMAS SEWARD — On Shakespeare's
Monument at Stratford-upon-Avon. Better to leave undone, than by our deed Acquire too high a fame, when him we serve's away.— Shakespeare — Antony and Cleopatra. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 14.
Death makes no conquest of this conqueror: For now he lives in fame, though not in life. S.— Shakespeare — Richard III. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 87.
He lives in fame, that died in virtue's cause.— Shakespeare — Titus Andronicus. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 390.
Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives, Live register'd upon our brazen tombs.— Shakespeare — Love's Labour's Lost. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 1.
Sloth views the towers of fame with envious eyes, Desirous still, still impotent to rise.— SHENSTONE — Moral Pieces. The Judgment of Hercules. L. 436.
No true and permanent Fame can be founded except in labors which promote the happiness of mankind.— CHARLES SUMNER — Fame and Glory.
An Address before the Literary Societies of Amherst College. Aug. 11, 1847. Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.— SWIFT — Thoughts on Various Subjects.
Give lettered pomp to teeth of Time, So "Bonnie Doon" but tarry: Blot out the epic's stately rhyme, But spare his Highland Mary!— WHITTIER — Burns. Last Stanza.
What rage for fame attends both great and small! Better be d-n'd than mentioned not at all. JOHN WOLCOtt (Peter Pindar)-To the Royal Academicians. Lyric Odes for the Year. 1783. Ode IX. Fame is the shade of immortality, And in itself a shadow. Soon as caught, Contemn'd; it shrinks to nothing in the grasp.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night VII. L. 363.
He stands for fame on his forefather's feet, By heraldry, proved valiant or discreet!— YOUNG — Love of Fame. Satire I. L. 123.
Men should press forward, in fame's glorious chase; Nobles look backward, and so lose the race.— YOUNG — Love of Fame. Satire I. L. 129.
Narcissus is the glory of his race: For who does nothing with a better grace?— YOUNG — Love of Fame. Satire IV. L. 85.
With fame, in just proportion, envy grows.— YOUNG — Epistle to Mr. Pope. Ep. I. L. 27.
Wouldst thou be famed? have those high acts in view, Brave men would act though scandal would ensue.— YOUNG — Love of Fame. Satire VII. L. 175.
Miserum est aliorum incumbere famæ. It is a wretched thing to live on the fame of others.— JUVENAL — Satira. VIII. 76.
Clarum et venerabile nomen. An illustrious and ancient name.— LUCAN — Pharsalia. IX. 203.
Nolo virum facili redimit qui sanguine famam; Hunc volo laudari qui sine morte potest. I do not like the man who squanders life for fame; give me the man who living makes a name. S.— MARTIAL — Epigrammata. I. 9. 5.
Si post fata venit gloria non propero. If fame comes after death, I am in no hurry for it.— MARTIAL — Epigrammata. V. 10. 12.
Immensum gloria calcar habet. The love of fame gives an immense stimulus.— OVID — Epistolæ Ex Ponto. IV. 2. 36.
Ingenio stimulos subdere fama solet. The love of fame usually spurs on the mind.— OVID — Tristium. V. 1. 76.
At pulchrum est digito monstrari et dicier hic est. It is pleasing to be pointed at with the finger and to have it said, "There goes the man." C.— PERSIUS — Satiræ. I. 28.
Omnia post obitum fingit majora vetustas: Majus ab exsequiis nomen in ora venit. Time magnifies everything after death; a man's fame is increased as it passes from mouth to mouth after his burial.— PROPERTIUS — Elegiæ. III. 1. 23.
Etiam sapientibus cupido gloriæ novissima exuitur. The love of fame is the last weakness which even the wise resign.— TACITUS — Annales. IV. 5.
Modestiæ fama neque summis mortalibus spernenda est. Modest fame is not to be despised by the highest characters.— TACITUS — Annales. XV. 2.
In tenui labor, at tenuis non gloria. The object of the labor was small, but not the fame.— VIRGIL — Georgica. IV. 6.
C'est un poids bien pesant qu'un nom trop tôt fameux. What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.— VOLTAIRE — La Henriade. Ch. III.
Je ne dois qu'à moi seul toute ma renommée. To myself alone do I owe my fame.— CORNÉILLE — L' Excuse à Ariste.
Tel brille au second rang, qui s'eclipse au premier. He shines in the second rank, who is eclipsed in the first.— VOLTAIRE — La Henriade. I.
Der rasche Kampf verewigt einen Mann, Er falle gleich, so preiset ihn das Lied. Rash combat oft immortalizes man. If he should fall, he is renowned in song.— GOETHE — Iphigenia auf Tauris. V. 6.
43. La vostra nominanza é color d'erba, Che viene e va; e quei la discolora Per cui ell' esce della terra acerba. All your renown is like the summer flower that blooms and dies; because the sunny glow which brings it forth, soon slays with parching power.— DANTE — Purgatoria. XI. 115.