Vainglory blossoms, and bears no fruit.
—Spanish proverb
Live unknown.
—Epicurus
3
I’m Nobody! […]
How dreary – to be – Somebody!
—Emily Dickinson, *1861
Less glory is more liberty.
—Albert Pike, 1871
It is graceless to be famous.
—Boris Pasternak, 1956
Some people make headlines while others make history.
4
—Philip Elmer-DeWitt
5
***
The ends justify the means.
—Ovid, *20 BC
The good ends do not make the means good.
—Gervase Babington, 1583
The ends cannot justify the means, for the simple and obvious reason that the means
employed determine the nature of the ends produced.
—Aldous Huxley, 1937
If you have no aim, you need not worry about the means.
—Fausto Cercignani, 2004
Where there is no shame, there is no honor.
—European proverb
He alone is great and happy who requires neither to command nor to obey in order to secure
his being of some importance in the world.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1773
The greatest power available to man is not to use it.
—Meister Eckhart
6
3
Apparently, this statement has become first known from its criticism by Plutarch in the first
century AD.
4
On the same general theme, there is a much more prosaic Spanish proverb: “Some have the fame,
and others card the wool”.
5
As quoted, without a date, in several generally reliable sources, starting not later than 1998.
6
As quoted, without a date, in several comprehensive collections of his sermons.
192
On Success and Glory, Good and Bad
—Spanish proverb
Live unknown.
—Epicurus
3
I’m Nobody! […]
How dreary – to be – Somebody!
—Emily Dickinson, *1861
Less glory is more liberty.
—Albert Pike, 1871
It is graceless to be famous.
—Boris Pasternak, 1956
Some people make headlines while others make history.
4
—Philip Elmer-DeWitt
5
***
The ends justify the means.
—Ovid, *20 BC
The good ends do not make the means good.
—Gervase Babington, 1583
The ends cannot justify the means, for the simple and obvious reason that the means
employed determine the nature of the ends produced.
—Aldous Huxley, 1937
If you have no aim, you need not worry about the means.
—Fausto Cercignani, 2004
Where there is no shame, there is no honor.
—European proverb
He alone is great and happy who requires neither to command nor to obey in order to secure
his being of some importance in the world.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1773
The greatest power available to man is not to use it.
—Meister Eckhart
6
3
Apparently, this statement has become first known from its criticism by Plutarch in the first
century AD.
4
On the same general theme, there is a much more prosaic Spanish proverb: “Some have the fame,
and others card the wool”.
5
As quoted, without a date, in several generally reliable sources, starting not later than 1998.
6
As quoted, without a date, in several comprehensive collections of his sermons.
192
On Success and Glory, Good and Bad