Extracts
On Celebrity
Selected from the Winter 2011 issue of Lapham’s Quarterly.
How sweet it is to have people point and say, “There he is.”
—Persius, c. 60
When I realized that people were even acquiring the habit of standing on chairs in crowded drawing rooms for a glimpse of me, is it surprising that I thought it uncanny?
—Lillie Langtry, c. 1874
Speaking was impossible; no words could be heard in the uproar, and nobody apparently cared to hear any.
—Charles Lindbergh, 1927
The great man’s curse, without the gains, endure, Be envied, wretched, and be flattered, poor; All luckless wits their enemies professed, And all successful, jealous friends at best. Nor fame I slight, nor for her favors call; She comes unlooked for, if she comes at all. —Alexander Pope, 1715
He is most fortunate who enjoys the anticipation of a noble and enduring reputation and, certain of posterity, lives with the thought of his future renown.
—Pliny the Younger, c. 109
The search after the great is the dream of youth and the most serious occupation of manhood. We travel into foreign parts to find his works—if possible, to get a glimpse of him.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1849
Wood burns because it has the proper stuff in it, and a man becomes famous because he has the proper stuff in him.
—Goethe, c. 1790
They who only strive for this paltry prize, like the Pharisees who prayed at the corners of streets to be seen of men, verily obtain the reward they seek, for the heart of man cannot be read by man!
—Mary Wollstonecraft, 1792
I would recommend the cultivation of extreme indifference to both praise and blame because praise will lead you to vanity, and blame will lead you to self-pity.
—John Berryman, 1970
I’m none of those who think themselves inspired, Nor write with the vain hopes to be admired, But from a rule I have upon long trial: T’ avoid with care all sort of self-denial. Which way soe’er desire and fancy lead, Condemning fame, that path I boldly tread. —John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, c. 1680
How few are there who are furnished with abilities sufficient to recommend their actions to the admiration of the world and to distinguish themselves from the rest of mankind!
—Joseph Addison, 1711
Here is a man whose name echoes round the world, who sells a hundred thousand copies of every book he writes, who has perhaps caused a greater stir in his lifetime than any other author, and yet, with his sickly constitution and his melancholy state of mind, he is unhappier than the most abject of failures.
—Edmond de Goncourt, 1880
I’m Nobody! Who are you? Are you—Nobody—too? Then there’s a pair of us! Don’t tell! They’d banish us—you know! How dreary—to be—Somebody! How public—like a Frog— To tell your name—the livelong June— To an admiring Bog! —Emily Dickinson, 1861
Fame, like a wayward girl, will still be coy To those who woo her with too slavish knees, But makes surrender to some thoughtless boy, And dotes the more upon a heart at ease. —John Keats, 1819
Praise is the fountain of blame. Though your fame lives on, it profits nothing, and this desire comes next in foolishness.
—Yoshida Kenkō, c. 1330
The merits of the cause shall be judged by a plurality of voices.
—Jonathan Swift, 1709
What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.
—Voltaire, 1723
It is my ambition to be, as a private individual, abolished and voided from history, leaving it markless, no refuse save the printed books; I wish I had had enough sense to see ahead thirty years ago and, like some of the Elizabethans, not signed them.
—William Faulkner, 1949
But glory is not ignored even by those who try to induce others to despise it. After all, those writers always take good care to put their own names on their books.
—Valerius Maximus, c. 31
Nothing that happens, whether here on earth or in the heavens or the seas below, is missed by Rumor as she sweeps the world. —Ovid, 8
Every man feels that he could sit there, every man feels that he could look big there, every man feels that he could bow there, every man feels that he could play the monarch there.
—William Hazlitt, 1823
Let all wise governors have as great a watch and care over fames as they have of the actions and designs themselves.
—Francis Bacon, 1601
In all free governments, it is the habit to overrate the dramatis personae of the hour.
—Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1862
There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
—Oscar Wilde, 1891
What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.
—Erasmus, 1515
Reality is always the foe of famous names.
—Petrarch, 1337
And on the pedestal these words appear: MY NAME IS OZYMANDIAS, KING OF KINGS: LOOK ON MY WORKS, YE MIGHTY, AND DESPAIR! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away. —Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1818
Worldly fame is but a breath of wind that blows now this way, now that, and changes names as it changes in direction.
—Dante, c. 1315
Everybody may be damned, as they seem fond of it, and resolve to stickle lustily for endless brimstone.
—Lord Byron, 1814
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CELEBRITY
Winter 2011