After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument
than why I have one.

After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument
than why I have one.

Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime. And, departing, leave behind us footprints on read more

Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime. And, departing, leave behind us footprints on the sands of time.

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.

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.

The charm of fame is so great that we like every object to which it is attached, even death.

The charm of fame is so great that we like every object to which it is attached, even death.

All your renown is like the summer flower that blooms and dies;
because the sunny glow which brings it read more

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.
[It., La vostra nominanza e color d'erba,
Che viene e va; e quei la discolora
Per cui ell' esce della terra acerba.]

It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.

It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.

Fame is proof that people are gullible.

Fame is proof that people are gullible.

And what after all is everlasting fame? Altogether vanity.

And what after all is everlasting fame? Altogether vanity.