Fame is but an inscription on a grave, and glory the melancholy blazon on a coffin lid.
Interpretation
Fame and glory are fleeting and ultimately insignificant, represented only by their association with death.
This quote suggests that the pursuit of fame and glory is ultimately hollow, as these accolades are merely superficial inscriptions that have no lasting value. In the end, they serve only as reminders of mortality, emphasizing the fleeting nature of life and the futility of seeking external validation through public recognition.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of authenticity over fame, one might use this quote to illustrate the pitfalls of seeking public approval.
Looking forward into an empty year strikes one with a certain awe, because one finds therein no recognition. The years behind have a friendly aspect, and they are warmed by the fires we have kindled, and all their echoes are the echoes of our own voices.
My garden, with its silence and pulses of fragrance that come and go on the airy undulations, affects me like sweet music. Care stops at the gates, and gazes at me wistfully through the bars.
Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition.
The world is not so much in need of new thoughts as that when thought grows old and worn with usage it should, like current coin, be called in, and, from the mint of genius, reissued fresh and new.
Books are a finer world within the world. (1863)
A man does not plant a tree for himself; he plants it for posterity.
Those who think of freedom in this country as one long, broad path leading ever onward and upward are dead damned wrong.
People are looking for a simplicity in their fictional worlds where good and evil are clearly delineated, that you can't find in the real world, and that provides an enormous comfort - and that, I think, has an awful lot to do with the reason fantasy is so popular.
Giving is the highest expression of potency. In the very act of giving, I experience my strength, my wealth, my power. This experience of heightened vitality and potency fills me with joy. I experience myself as overflowing, spending, alive, hence as joyous.
To denounce does not free the self from what it hates, any more than ignoring the past shuts off its influence.
I think that slavery is wrong, morally, socially and politically. I desire that it should be no further spread in these United States, and I should not object if it should gradually terminate in the whole Union.
It is very important to be aware that you may never be satistied with your analytic career if you feel that you are restricted to what is narrowly called a βscientificβ approach. You will have to be able to have a chance of feeling that the interpretation you give is a beautiful one, or that you get a beautiful response from the patient. This aesthetic element of beauty makes a very difficult situation tolerable.
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