Themes

"Tel brille au second rang, qui s'eclipse au premier."

"In tenui labor, at tenuis non gloria."

"Ingrediturque solo, et caput inter nubila condit."

"Fama est obscurior annis."

"The whole earth is a sepulchre for famous men."

"Modestiæ fama neque summis mortalibus spernenda est."

"Etiam sapientibus cupido gloriæ novissima exuitur."

"Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent."

"No true and permanent Fame can be founded except in labors which promote the happiness of mankind."

"Sloth views the towers of fame with envious eyes, Desirous still, still impotent to rise."

"Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds."

"He lives in fame, that died in virtue's cause."

"Death makes no conquest of this conqueror: For now he lives in fame, though not in life."

"Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives, Live register'd upon our brazen tombs."

"Better to leave undone, than by our deed Acquire too high a fame, when him we serve's away."

"May see thee now, though late, redeem thy name, And glorify what else is damn'd to fame."

"Your fame shall (spite of proverbs) make it plain To write in water 's not to write in vain."

"Omnia post obitum fingit majora vetustas: Majus ab exsequiis nomen in ora venit."

"And what is Fame? the Meanest have their Day, The Greatest can but blaze, and pass away."

"Above all Greek, above all Roman fame."

"Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame, Do good by stealth, and blush to find it Fame."

"All crowd, who foremost shall be damn'd to fame."

"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."

"To the quick brow Fame grudges her best wreath While the quick heart to enjoy it throbs beneath: On the dead forehead's sculptured marble shown, Lo, her choice crown—its flowers are also stone."

"At pulchrum est digito monstrari et dicier hic est."

"Ingenio stimulos subdere fama solet."

"I'll make thee glorious by my pen And famous by my sword."

"Des humeurs desraisonnables des hommes, il semble que les philosophes mesmes se desfacent plus tard et plus envy de cette cy que de nulle autre: c'est la plus revesche et opiniastre; quia etiam bene proficientes animos tentare non cessat."

"Fame, if not double fac'd, is double 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."

"Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil."

"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."

"Fame lulls the fever of the soul, and makes Us feel that we have grasp'd an immortality."

"Read but o'er the Stories Of men most fam'd for courage or for counsaile And you shall find that the desire of glory Was the last frailty wise men put of; Be they presidents."

"Though the desire of fame be the last weakness Wise men put off."

"His fame was great in all the land."

"Building nests in Fame's great temple, As in spouts the swallows build."

"Fame comes only when deserved, and then is as inevitable as destiny, for it is destiny."

""Let us now praise famous men"— Men of little showing— For their work continueth, And their work continueth, Greater than their knowing."

"Miserum est aliorum incumbere famæ."

"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."

"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."

"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?"

"But sure the eye of time beholds no name, So blest as thine in all the rolls of fame."

"Earth sounds my wisdom, and high heaven my fame."

"The life, which others pay, let us bestow, And give to fame what we to nature owe."

"The rest were vulgar deaths unknown to fame."

"Short is my date, but deathless my renown."

"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."

"The temple of fame stands upon the grave: the flame that burns upon its altars is kindled from the ashes of dead men."

"Der rasche Kampf verewigt einen Mann, Er falle gleich, so preiset ihn das Lied."