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!

Fame is vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.

Fame is vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.

Fame is a bee. / It has a song / It has a sting / Ah, too, it has a read more

Fame is a bee. / It has a song / It has a sting / Ah, too, it has a wing.

The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well, and doing well whatever you do read more

The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well, and doing well whatever you do without thought of fame. If it comes at all it will come because it is deserved, not because it is sought after.

Nothing can cover his high fame but Heaven;
No pyramids set off his memories,
But the eternal read more

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.

Fame is proof that people are gullible.

Fame is proof that people are gullible.

Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.

Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.

In the very books in which philosophers bid us scorn fame, they inscribe their names.

In the very books in which philosophers bid us scorn fame, they inscribe their names.

The splendors that belong unto the fame of earth are but a wind,
that in the same direction lasts read more

The splendors that belong unto the fame of earth are but a wind,
that in the same direction lasts not long.
[It., Non e il mondam romore alro che un fiato
Di vento, che vien quinci et or vien quindi,
E muta nome, perche muta lato.]