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.

Scarcely two hundred years back can Fame recollect articulately
at all; and there she but maunders and mumbles.

Scarcely two hundred years back can Fame recollect articulately
at all; and there she but maunders and mumbles.

Were not this desire of fame very strong, the difficulty of
obtaining it, and the danger of losing it read more

Were not this desire of fame very strong, the difficulty of
obtaining it, and the danger of losing it when obtained, would be
sufficient to deter a man from so vain a pursuit.

I awoke one morning and found myself famous.

I awoke one morning and found myself famous.

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.]

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.

What shall I do to be forever known,
And make the age to come my own?

What shall I do to be forever known,
And make the age to come my own?

Folly loves the martyrdom of Fame.

Folly loves the martyrdom of Fame.

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.