FAME
Upstarts frequently usurp the highest places, while the truly great pine in obscurity. ME280
Gain and fame are only so much foam of the sea. All the wealth and honour the
whole world can afford would be too slender a thread to bear up the happiness of an
immortal soul. TD62:10
Fame is not an impartial judge; she has her favourites. Some men she extolls, exalts,
and almost deifies; others, whose virtues are far greater, and whose characters are
more deserving of commendation, she passes by unheeded, and puts the finger of
silence on her lips. WC43
The world soon forgets its benefactors. WCo87
The world will never believe a man famous unless he constantly outdoes himself. WWi124
How sad for a soul to know that the clangour of fame’s trumpet is dying away from
its ears to be superseded by the blast of that awful trumpet ordained to wake the
dead and call them to their last account! 890.512
Ye shall not have his smiles if the smiles of the world will do as well. 1655.224
To have people for ever talking about you, for you, and against you is one of the
wearinesses of mortal life; and yet some people sigh for the fuss that others would be
glad to be rid of. 1733.424
Men even carry to the extreme of folly any slight connection with the great, like the
man who boasted that the king had spoken to him, when it turned out that all his
majesty said was, “Get out of the way!” 2137.190
Full many a name in the roll of fame has been written there with a finger dipped in
blood. It would seem as if men loved those most who have killed the most of them. 2187.61
“Nobody knows me,” says one. Well, it is not a very desirable thing that anybody
should know you: those of us who are known to everybody would be very glad if we
were not; there is no very great comfort in it. 2216.411
“Oh!” says one, “but a man may be famous without God.” Yes, in a sense he may; but
have you ever analyzed fame? Of what good is it to a dead man? Of what good is it to
a damned man? A man in hell, and his name in every newspaper! A man in the
bottomless pit, and they say that he is one of the great men of the age, who has left
his mark upon the world; but if it is a mark without God, what kind of mark is it? A
mark that had better be obliterated as soon as possible. No creature can be a success
unless it pleases its Creator. 2559.113
Nothing that man makes for man will endure. Build on, ye despots; but Time, a
mightier king than you, will pull down all that you put up. 3142.209
“Ah!” says Death again, as he smites him with his cold hand, “who can tell the
difference between the skull of the learned and the skull of the ignorant when the
worm has emptied them both?” 3185.89
What is your name or your character, after all? Who will be any the better for your
caring about such an insignificant creature as you are? Why, when you are dead and
gone, the world will not miss you! It is wonderful what great beings we are in our
own esteem, and yet what little beings we really are, after all! 3239.103
A man may be guilty of nearly every form of iniquity, but so long as he is rich,
nothing is said against him; yet, if another possesses every virtue, but in addition to
that is poor, prejudice has not a word to say in his favour. 3312.354