Renown Quotes

• A watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest while we are building ideal monuments of Renown and Bliss here we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven.

  James Madison

  Eye, Names, Heaven

  James Madison (1962). “Papers”

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• I too shall lie in the dust when I am dead, but now let me win noble renown.

  Homer

  Lying, Winning, Dust

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• If any ambitious man have a fancy to revolutionize, at one effort, the universal world of human thought, human opinion, and human sentiment, the opportunity is his own -- the road to immortal renown lies straight, open, and unencumbered before him. All that he has to do is to write and publish a very little book. Its title should be simple -- a few plain words -- My Heart Laid Bare. But -- this little book must be true to its title.

  Edgar Allan Poe

  Honesty, Lying, Book

  Edgar Allan Poe (2006). “The Portable Edgar Allan Poe”, p.601, Penguin

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• The renown which riches or beauty confer is fleeting and frail mental excellence is a splendid and lasting possession.

  Sallust

  Excellence, Fleeting, Riches

  Sallust (1921). “Sallust”

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• It is not possible to be regarded with tenderness, except by a few. That merit which gives greatness and renown diffuses its influence to a wide compass, but acts weakly on every single breast; it is placed at a distance from common spectators, and shines like one of the remote stars, of which the light reaches us, but not the heat.

  Samuel Johnson

  Stars, Distance, Greatness

  Samuel Johnson, Peter Martin (2009). “Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings”, p.217, Harvard University Press

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• The practice of perseverance is the discipline of the noblest virtues. To run well, we must run to the end. It is not the fighting but the' conquering that gives a hero his title to renown.

  Elias Lyman Magoon

  Running, Perseverance, Hero

  Elias Lyman Magoon (1849). “Proverbs for the people: or, Illustrations of practical godliness drawn from the Book of wisdom”, p.188

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• Renown? I've already got more of it than those I respect, and will never have as much as those for whom I feel contempt.

  Jean Rostand

  Respect, Fame, Contempt

  Jean Rostand (1962). “The substance of man”

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• The greatest works of admiration,
  And all the fair examples of renown.
  Out of distress and misery are grown.

  Samuel Daniel

  Fear, Example, Misery

  Samuel Daniel (1718). “The Poetical Works of Mr. Samuel Daniel ...: To which is Prefix'd, Memoirs of His Life and Writings ...”, p.362

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• All's well that ends well; still the fine's the crown. Whate'er the course, the end is the renown.

  William Shakespeare

  Crowns, Ends, Fine

  William Shakespeare, Mr. Theobald (Lewis), Alexander Pope, Richard Farmer, Samuel Johnson (1821). “The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare: Venus and Adonis. Rape of Lucrece. Sonnets. Lover's complaint. Passionate pilgrim. Memoirs of Lord Southampton”, p.159

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• Had I but died an hour before this chance,
  I had liv'd a blessed time; for, from this instant,
  There's nothing serious in mortality:
  All is but toys; renown, and grace is dead;
  The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
  Is left this vault to brag of.

  William Shakespeare

  Life, Blessed, Wine

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 2, sc. 3, l. [98]

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• Some for renown, on scraps of learning dote, And think they grow immortal as they quote.

  Edward Young

  Learning, Thinking, Training

  Edward Young (1799). “The poetical works of ... E. Young. With the life of the author. Cooke's ed”, p.37

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• Breathes there the man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land.

  Walter Scott

  Patriotic, Country Love, Men

  The Lay of the Last Minstrel canto 6, st. 1 (1805)

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• Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
  The wretch, concentred all in self,
  Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
  And, doubly dying, shall go down
  To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
  Unwept, unhonor'd, and unsung.

  Walter Scott

  Groundhog Day, Self, Dust

  The Lay of the Last Minstrel canto 6, st. 1 (1805)

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• To set the cause above renown, To love the game beyond the prize, To honor, while you strike him down, The foe that comes with fearless eyes To count the life of battle good and dear the land that gave you birth, And dearer yet the brotherhood...

  Henry Newbolt

  Eye, Land, Games

  Sir Henry Newbolt, “Clifton Chapel”

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• Short is my date, but deathless my renown.

  Homer

  Fame, Deathless

  Homer (1769). “The Iliad of Homer”, p.329

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• The only true riches are those that make us rich in virtue. Therefore, if you want to be rich, beloved, love true riches. If you aspire to the heights of real honor, strive to reach the kingdom of Heaven. If you value rank and renown, hasten to be enrolled in the heavenly court of the Angels.

  Pope Gregory I

  Real, Angel, Heaven

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• There are believers who by God's grace, have climbed the mountains of full assurance and near communion, their place is with the eagle in his eyrie, high aloft; they are like the strong mountaineer, who has trodden the virgin snow, who has breathed the fresh, free air of the Alpine regions, and therefore his sinews are braced, and his limbs are vigorous; these are they who do great exploits, being mighty men, men of renown.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Strong, Men, Air

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, (p. 18), 1895.

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• Renown awaits the commander who first restores artillery to its prime importance on the battlefield.

  Winston Churchill

  Military, Firsts, Prime

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• He who was Shri Rama, whose stream of love flowed with resistless might even to the Chandala (the outcaste); Oh, who ever was engaged in doing good to the world though superhuman by nature, whose renown there is none to equal in the three worlds, Sita's beloved, whose body of Knowledge Supreme was covered by devotion sweet in the form of Sita. (part of A Hymn To Shri Ramakrishna)

  Swami Vivekananda

  Sweet, Hymns, Three

  Swami Vivekananda (1964). “Complete Works”

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• Enthusiasm is a virtue rarely to be met with in seasons of calm and unruffled prosperity. Enthusiasm flourishes in adversity, kindles in the hour of danger, and awakens to deeds of renown. The terrors of persecution only serve to quicken the energy of its purposes. It swells in proud integrity, and, great in the purity of its cause, it can scatter defiance amidst hosts of enemies.

  Thomas Chalmers

  Integrity, Adversity, Enemy

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• There are decades in the making of the one man of renown; Multitudes that go unnoticed who must wreathe for him a crown.

  Christopher Paolini

  Men, Crowns, Fame

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• [Every age], however destitute of science or virtue, sufficiently abounds with acts of blood and military renown.

  Edward Gibbon

  Military, Blood, Age

  Edward Gibbon (2016). “THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (All 6 Volumes): From the Height of the Roman Empire, the Age of Trajan and the Antonines - to the Fall of Byzantium; Including a Review of the Crusades, and the State of Rome during the Middle Ages”, p.1804, e-artnow

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• Let others seek renown in arms; For me wine's wars have greater charms: Then fill the bowl, boy; fill it high: 'Tis better drunk, than dead to lie.

  Anacreon

  War, Lying, Wine

  Anacreon, John Broderick Roche (1827). “The First Twenty-eight Odes of Anacreon: In Greek and in English and in Both Languages, in Prose as Well as in Verse : with Variorum Notes, a Grammatical Analysis and a Lexicon”, p.189

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• For more than twenty years he [Blanchard] toiled on through the most fatiguing paths of literary composition, mostly in periodicals, often anonymously; pleasing and lightly instructing thousands, but gaining none of the prizes, whether of weighty reputation or popular renown, which more fortunate chances, or more pretending modes of investing talent, have given in our day to men of half his merits.

  Samuel Laman Blanchard

  Men, Years, Path

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• The weaker sex, to piety more prone, by rare examples, oft have been renown'd. When many murders were bewail'd by none, an isles whole men in blood by women drown'd.

  William Alexander, 1st Earl of Stirling

  Sex, Men, Blood

  William Alexander, “Doomes-Day: The Fifth Houre”

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