It is better to be famous than notorious, but better to be notorious than obscure.

It is better to be famous than notorious, but better to be notorious than obscure.

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

He who has lived obscurely and quietly has lived well.
[Lat., Bene qui latuit, bene vixit.]

He who has lived obscurely and quietly has lived well.
[Lat., Bene qui latuit, bene vixit.]

Some write their wrongs in marble: he more just,
Stoop'd down serene and wrote them on the dust,
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Some write their wrongs in marble: he more just,
Stoop'd down serene and wrote them on the dust,
Trod under foot, the sport of every wind,
Swept from the earth and blotted from his mind,
There, secret in the grave, he bade them lie,
And grieved they could not 'scape the Almighty eye.

Content thyself to be obscurely good.
When vice prevails and impious men bear away,
The post of read more

Content thyself to be obscurely good.
When vice prevails and impious men bear away,
The post of honor is a private station.

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

Yet still he fills affection's eye,
Obscurely wise, and coarsely kind.

Yet still he fills affection's eye,
Obscurely wise, and coarsely kind.

I give the fight up; let there be an end,
A privacy, an obscure nook for me,
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I give the fight up; let there be an end,
A privacy, an obscure nook for me,
I want to be forgotten even by God.

Yet was he but a squire of low degree.

Yet was he but a squire of low degree.