What is the end of Fame? 'tis but to fill
A certain portion of uncertain paper:
Some read more

What is the end of Fame? 'tis but to fill
A certain portion of uncertain paper:
Some liken it to climbing up a hill,
Whose summit, like all hills, is lost in vapour:
For this men write, speak, preach, and heroes kill,
And bards burn what they call their "midnight taper,"
To have, when the original is dust,
A name, a wretched picture, and worse bust.

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.]

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.

Herostratus lives that burnt the temple of Diana; he is almost
lost that built it.

Herostratus lives that burnt the temple of Diana; he is almost
lost that built it.

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.

Fame usually comes to those who are thinking about something else.

Fame usually comes to those who are thinking about something else.

A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to read more

A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognised.

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.

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.