Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Related Quotes

Marcus Aurelius, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus

Of human life the time is a point, and the substance is in a flux, and the perception dull, and the composition of the whole body subject to putrefaction, and the soul a whirl, and fortune hard to divine, and fame a thing devoid of judgment. And, to say all in a word, everything which belongs to the body is a stream, and what belongs to the soul is a dream and a vapor, and life is a warfare and a stranger’s sojourn, and after-fame is oblivion.

Body | Character | Fame | Fortune | Judgment | Life | Life | Oblivion | Perception | Soul | Time |

Jeremy Collier

Those who despise fame seldom deserve it. We are apt to undervalue the purchase we cannot reach, to conceal our poverty the better. It is a spark which kindles upon the best fuel, and burns brightest in the bravest breast.

Better | Character | Despise | Fame | Poverty |

Edward Everett

Though a hundred crooked paths may conduct to a temporary success, the one plain and straight path of public and private virtue can alone lead to a pure and lasting fame and the blessings of posterity.

Blessings | Character | Conduct | Fame | Posterity | Public | Success | Virtue | Virtue |

William Cowper

Good sense, good health, good conscience, and good fame - all these belong to virtue, and all prove that virtue has a title to your love.

Character | Conscience | Fame | Good | Health | Love | Sense | Title | Virtue | Virtue |

David Hume

Vanity is so closely allied to virtue and to love the fame of laudable actions approaches so near the love of laudable actions for their own sake, that these passions are more capable of mixture than any other kinds of affection; and it is almost impossible to have the latter without some degree of the former.

Character | Fame | Love | Virtue | Virtue |

Juvenal, fully Decimus Junius Juvenalis NULL

The thirst for fame is much greater than that for virtue; for who would embrace virtue itself if you take away its rewards.

Character | Fame | Virtue | Virtue |

David Mallet, also David Malloch

Who despises fame will soon renounce the virtues that deserve it.

Character | Fame | Will |

Charles Sumner

No true and permanent fame can be founded, except in labors which promote the happiness of mankind.

Character | Fame | Mankind | Happiness |

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, fully Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, Lord Lytton

Better than fame is still the wish for fame, the constant training for glorious strife.

Better | Fame | Training | Wisdom |

G. K. Chesterton, fully Gilbert Keith Chesterton

A man must love a thing very much if he not only practices it without any hope of fame and money, but even practices it without any hope of doing it well.

Fame | Hope | Love | Man | Money | Wisdom |

Thomas Dreier

That person lives in hell who gets what he desires too soon. Whether he finds his happiness in wealth, power, fame or women, or in a combination of all, that happiness will be meaningless if it robs him of his desire. Heaven is a country through which we are permitted to search eagerly and with hope for what we want.

Desire | Fame | Heaven | Hell | Hope | Power | Search | Wealth | Will | Wisdom | Happiness |

Propertius, fully Sextus Propertius NULL

Time magnifies everything after death; a man’s fame is increased as it passes from mouth to mouth after his burial.

Burial | Death | Fame | Man | Time | Wisdom |

Li Ju-chen

Lust for fame and fortune is like an intoxication. While a man is intoxicated, he doesn’t realize it. It’s only after it is all over that he realizes that everything is like an illusion. If men could realize this all the time, there would be much less trouble on earth, and there would be much happier people too.

Earth | Fame | Fortune | Illusion | Lust | Man | Men | People | Time | Trouble |

Li Ju-chen

Wealth and fame are of dubious value when we think that life is like a fleeting dream.

Fame | Life | Life | Wealth | Think | Value |

Chinese Proverbs

To see through fame and wealth is to gain a little rest; to see through life and death is to gain a big rest.

Death | Fame | Life | Life | Little | Rest | Wealth |

Chinese Proverbs

Who give me goods hurts my spirit; who gives me fame injures my life.

Fame | Life | Life | Spirit |