47. Fame "Ah, Sir, a boy's being flogged is not so severe as a man's having the hiss of the world against him. Men have a solicitude about fame; and the greater share they have of it, the more afraid they are of losing it." Boswell: Life Link 523. Fame "It is no less a proof of eminence to have many enemies than many friends." Johnson: Rambler #10 (April 21, 1750) Link 635. Fame; Virtue "The love of fame is to be regulated rather than extinguished; ... men should be taught not to be wholly careless about their memory, but to endeavour that they be remembered chiefly for their virtues, since no other reputation will be able to transmit any any pleasure beyond the grave." Johnson: Rambler #49 (September 4, 1750) Link 644. Admiration; Fame "Every heart ought to rejoice when true merit is distinguished with publick notice." Johnson: Idler #6 (May 20, 1758) Link 714. Comeuppance; Fame; Vanity "It is common to consider those whom we find infected with an unreasonable regard for trifling accomplishments, as chargeable with all the consequences of their folly, and as the authors of their own unhappiness; but, perhaps, those whom we thus scorn or detest have more claim to tenderness than has been yet allowed to them. Before we permit our severity to break loose upon any fault or error, we ought surely to consider how much we have countenanced or promoted it. We see multitudes busied in the pursuits of riches, at the expense of wisdom or virtue; but we see the rest of mankind approving their conduct, and inciting their eagerness, by paying that regard and deference to wealth which wisdom and virtue only can deserve." Johnson: Rambler #66 (November 3, 1750) Link 879. Conversation; Fame; Mourning "That desire which every man feels of being remembered and lamented is often mortified when we remark how little concern is caused by the eternal departure even of those who have passed their lives with public honours, and been distinguished by extraordinary performances. 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. The wit, the hero, the philosopher, whom their tempers or their fortunes have hindered from intimate relations, die, without any other effect than that of adding a new topic to the conversation of the day. They impress none with any fresh conviction of the fragility of our nature, because none had any particular interest in their lives, or was united to them by a reciprocation of endearments." Johnson: Rambler #78 (December 15, 1750) Link 880. Fame; Mourning "It often happens that those who in their lives were applauded and admired, are laid at last in the ground without the common honour of a stone; because by those excellences with which many were delighted, none had been obliged, and, though they had many to celebrate, they had none to love them." Johnson: Rambler #78 (December 15, 1750) Link 1,039. Fame "Such is the power of reputation justly acquired that its blaze drives away the eye from nice examination. Surely no man could have fancied that he read Lycidas with pleasure had he not known its author." Johnson: Milton (Lives of the Poets) Link 1,093. Fame; Obscurity; Writing "There are, indeed, few kinds of composition from which an author, however learned or ingenious, can hope a long continuance of fame." Johnson: Rambler #106 (March 23, 1751) Link 1,137. Fame "The hopes and fears of modern minds are content to range in a narrow compass; a single nation, and a few years, have generally sufficient amplitude to fill our imagination." Johnson: Rambler #118 (May 4, 1751) Link 1,138. Fame "A little consideration will indeed teach us, that fame has other limits than mountains and oceans; and that he who places happiness in the frequent repetition of his name, may spend his life in propagating it, without any danger of weeping for new worlds, or necessity of passing the Atlantic sea." Johnson: Rambler #118 (May 4, 1751) Link 1,166. Fame; Old Age; Potential "It is not uncommon for those who at their first entrance into the world were distinguished for attainments or abilities, to disappoint the hopes which they had raised, and to end in neglect and obscurity that life which they began in honour. To the long catalogue of the inconveniences of old age, which moral and satirical writers have so copiously displayed, may be often added the loss of fame." Johnson: Rambler #127 (June 4, 1751) Link 1,229. Envy; Fame "It is impossible to mingle in conversation without observing the difficulty with which a new name makes its way into the world. The first appearance of excellence unites multitudes against it; unexpected opposition rises up on every side; the celebrated and the obscure join in the confederacy; subtlety furnishes arms to impudence, and invention leads on credulity." Johnson: Rambler #144 (August 3, 1751) Link 1,230. Envy; Fame "Such is the state of the world, that no sooner can any man emerge from the crowd, and fix the eyes of the public upon him, than he stands as a mark to the arrows of lurking calumny, and receives, in the tumult of hostility, from distant and nameless hands, wounds not always easy to be cured." Johnson: Rambler #144 (August 3, 1751) Link 1,236. Fame; Obscurity "It is long before we are convinced of the small proportion which every individual bears to the collective body of mankind; or learn how few can be interested in the fortune of any single man; how little vacancy is left in the world for any new object of attention; to how small extent the brightest blaze of merit can be spread amidst the mists of business and folly; and how soon it is clouded by the intervention of other novelties." Johnson: Rambler #146 (August 10, 1751) Link 1,238. Fame; Obscurity "He that is pushing his predecessors into the gulf of obscurity, cannot but sometimes suspect, that he must himself sink in like manner, and, as he stands upon the same precipice, be swept away with the same violence." Johnson: Rambler #146 (August 10, 1751) Link 1,298. Fame "Time quickly puts an end to artificial and accidental fame." Johnson: Addison (Lives of the Poets) Link 1,299. Fame "Every name which kindness or interest once raised too high is in danger lest the next age should by the vengeance of criticism sink it in the same proportion." Johnson: Addison (Lives of the Poets) Link 1,326. Fame; Success "No man rises to such a height as to become conspicuous, but he is on one side censured by undiscerning malice, which reproaches him for his best actions, and slanders his apparent and incontestable excellences; and idolized on the other by ignorant admiration, which exalts his faults and follies into virtues." Johnson: Rambler #164 (October 12, 1751) Link 1,475. Fame "Whether to be remembered in remote times be worthy of a wise man's wish has not yet been satisfactorily decided; and, indeed, to be long remembered can happen to so small a number that the bulk of mankind has very little interest in the question." Johnson: Rambler #203 (February 25, 1752) Link 1,476. Fame "There is never room in the world for more than a certain quantity or measure of renown." Johnson: Rambler #203 (February 25, 1752) Link 1,478. Fame "Reputation is ... a meteor which blazes a while and disappears for ever; and if we except a few transcendent and invincible names, which no revolution of opinion or length of time is able to suppress; all those that engage our thoughts, or diversify our conversation, are every moment hasting to obscurity, as new favourites are adopted by fashion." Johnson: Rambler #203 (February 25, 1752) Link 1,748. Fame; Obscurity "Of many writers who fill their age with wonder, and whose names we find celebrated in the books of their contemporaries, the works are now no longer to be seen, or are seen only among the lumber of libraries which are seldom visited, where they lie only to shew the deceitfulness of hope, and the uncertainty of honour." Johnson: Idler #59 (June 2, 1759) Link 1,749. Fame; Obscurity "Of the decline of reputation many cause nay be assigned. It is commonly lost because it never was deserved; and was conferred at first, not by the suffrages of criticism, but by the fondness of friendship, or servility of flattery. The great and popular are very freely applauded; but all soon grow weary of echoing to each other a name which has no other claim to notice, but that many mouths are pronouncing it at once." Johnson: Idler #59 (June 2, 1759) Link 1,750. Fame; Writing "He that writes upon general principles, or delivers universal truths, may hope to be often read, because his work will be equally useful at all times and in every country; but he cannot expect it to be received with eagerness, or to spread with rapidity, because desire can have no particular stimulation: that which is to be loved long, must be loved with reason rather than with passion. He that lays his labours out upon temporary subjects, easily finds readers and quickly loses them; for what should make the book valued when the subject is no more?" Johnson: Idler #59 (June 2, 1759) Link 1,813. Fame; Writing "The authors that in any nation last from age to age are very few, because there are very few that have any other claim to notice than that they catch hold on present curiosity, and gratify some accidental desire, or produce some temporary conveniency." Johnson: Idler #85 (December 1, 1759) Link 1,866. Failure; Fame; Humanity; Success; Writing Success and miscarriage have the same effect in all conditions. The prosperous are feared, hated, and flattered; and the unfortunate avoided, pitied, and despised. No sooner is a book published than the writer may judge of the opinion of the world. If his acquaintance press around him in publick places, or salute from the other side of the street; if invitations to dinner come thick upon him, and those with whom he dines keep him to supper; if the ladies turn to him when his coat is plain, and the footmen serve him with attention and alacrity; he may be sure that his work has been praised by some leader of literary fashions. Of declining reputation the symptoms are not less easily observed. If the author enters a coffee-house, he has a box to himself; if he calls at a bookseller's, the boy turns his back; and, what is the most fatal of all prognosticks, authors will visit him in a morning, and talk to him hour after hour of the malevolence of criticks, the neglect of merit, the bad taste of the age, and the candour of posterity. Johnson: Idler #102 (March 29, 1760) Link