“Rightly to be great is not to stir without great argument, but greatly to find quarrel in a straw when honour's at the stake.”
William Shakespeare
GreatnessHonour
Famous Quotes
200 FAMOUS QUOTES · FAMOUS
Famous Quotes
Read 200 of the best famous quotes about fame, reputation, glory and being remembered, from Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Milton, Franklin and more.
“By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap, to pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon.”
William Shakespeare
AmbitionGlory
“I have bought golden opinions from all sorts of people.”
William Shakespeare
ReputationPopularity
“Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition: by that sin fell the angels.”
William Shakespeare
AmbitionWarning
“Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.”
William Shakespeare
AmbitionCharacter
“If it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive.”
William Shakespeare
HonourAmbition
“I had rather be their servant in my way than sway with them in theirs.”
William Shakespeare
IntegrityIndependence
“The present eye praises the present object.”
William Shakespeare
Fleeting FameHuman Nature
“Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.”
John Milton
AmbitionPride
“All that is there sold, or that cometh thither, is vanity.”
John Bunyan
Vanity FairMaterialism
“It is a strange desire, to seek power and to lose liberty.”
Francis Bacon
PowerFreedom
“All rising to great place is by a winding stair.”
Francis Bacon
SuccessPatience
“We should not judge of a man's merit by his great qualities, but by the use he makes of them.”
François de La Rochefoucauld
CharacterMerit
“No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.”
Samuel Johnson
WritingFunny
“When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.”
Jonathan Swift
GeniusCriticism
“Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide.”
John Dryden
GeniusMadness
“What pity is it that we can die but once to serve our country!”
Joseph Addison
PatriotismGlory
“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Percy Bysshe Shelley
PrideFleeting Glory
“Just for a handful of silver he left us, just for a riband to stick in his coat.”
Robert Browning
Selling OutDisappointment
“He is great who is what he is from nature, and who never reminds us of others.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
OriginalityGreatness
“Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.”
Mark Twain
Public ImageHuman Nature
“Only the great masters of style ever succeed in being obscure.”
Oscar Wilde
StyleWitty
“The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.”
Thomas Carlyle
Self-AwarenessHumility
“There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
DownfallPerspective
“Westminster Abbey or victory!”
Horatio Nelson
GloryCourage