O Fame!--if I e'er took delight in thy praises,
'Twas less for the sake of thy high-sounding phrases,
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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.

The lust of fame is the last that a wise man shakes off.

The lust of fame is the last that a wise man shakes off.

And what after all is everlasting fame? Altogether vanity.

And what after all is everlasting fame? Altogether vanity.

Fame is not just. She never finely or discriminatingly praises, but coarsely hurrahs.

Fame is not just. She never finely or discriminatingly praises, but coarsely hurrahs.

Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb
The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar!

Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb
The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar!

Famous people state fame as a cruse and those who have it not look upon it as a dream, hance read more

Famous people state fame as a cruse and those who have it not look upon it as a dream, hance dreams are cruses.

Fame, we may understand, is no sure test of merit, but only a
probability of such: it is an read more

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.

Fame is the inheritance not of the dead, but of the living. It is we who look back with lofty read more

Fame is the inheritance not of the dead, but of the living. It is we who look back with lofty pride to the great names of antiquity.

The best-concerted schemes men lay for fame,
Die fast away: only themselves die faster.
The far-fam'd sculptor, read more

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.