John Milton Quotes About Fame

Quotes about: Fame

• Not to know me argues yourselves unknown.

  John Milton

  Arguing, Fame, Paradise Lost Book 9

  John Milton (1773). “The First Six Books of Milton's Paradise Lost: Rendered Into Grammatical Construction ... with Notes Grammatical, Geographical, Historical, Critical, and Explanatory. To which are Prefixed Remarks on Ellipsis and Transposition ...”, p.297

• Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil.

  John Milton

  Soil, Fame, Plant

  'Lycidas' (1638) l. 78

• Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise. That last infirmity of noble mind. To scorn delights, and live laborious days.

  John Milton

  Mind, Noble, Delight

  "Lycidas" l. 70 (1638). A 1619 play thought to be written by John Fletcher, Sir John van Olden Barnavelt act 1, sc. 1, refers to "the desire of glory (That last infirmity of noble minds)." That play was lost and not rediscovered until 1883, so Milton's parallel words were coincidental.

• What needs my Shakespeare for his honour'd bones,- The labour of an age in piled stones? Or that his hallow'd relics should be hid Under a star-y-pointing pyramid? Dear son of memory, great heir of fame, What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name?

  John Milton

  Stars, Memories, Son

  John Milton, “On Shakespear”

• Thence to the famous orators repair, Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce democratie, Shook the arsenal, and fulmin'd over Greece, To Macedon, and Artaxerxes' throne.

  John Milton

  Thrones, Oratory, Fierce

  John Milton, Henry John Todd, Thomas Newton, John Aikin (1801). “The Poetical Works of John Milton”, p.275

• Enflamed with the study of learning and the admiration of virtue; stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy patriots, dear to God, and famous to all ages.

  John Milton

  Learning, Men, Bravery

  John Locke, John Milton (1830). “Some thoughts concerning education”, p.277

• Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise

  John Milton

  Spurs, Spirit, Fame

  "Lycidas" l. 70 (1638). A 1619 play thought to be written by John Fletcher, Sir John van Olden Barnavelt act 1, sc. 1, refers to "the desire of glory (That last infirmity of noble minds)." That play was lost and not rediscovered until 1883, so Milton's parallel words were coincidental.

• Fame is the last infirmity of the human mind.

  John Milton

  Mind, Lasts, Recognition

• Alas! What boots it with uncessant care To tend the homely slighted Shepherd's trade, And strictly meditate the thankless muse; Were it not better done as others use, To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, Or with the tangles of Neaera's hair? Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise (That last infirmity of noble mind) To scorn delights, and live laborious days; But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, And think to burst out into sudden blaze, Comes the blind Fury with th'abhorred shears, And slits the thin-spun life.

  John Milton

  Sports, Thinking, Hair

  'Lycidas' (1638) l. 64

• For what is glory but the blaze of fame?

  John Milton

  Glory, Fame

  John Milton (1871). “The poetical works of John Milton, ed. with a critical memoir by W.M. Rossetti”, p.232

• Among the writers of all ages, some deserve fame, and have it; others neither have nor deserve it; some have it, not deserving it; others, though deserving it, yet totally miss it, or have it not equal to their deserts.

  John Milton

  Deserving It, Missing, Age

• Fame, if not double fac'd, is double mouth'd, And with contrary blast proclaims most deeds; On both his wings, one black, the other white, Bears greatest names in his wild aery flight.

  John Milton

  Names, Wings, White

  John Milton, Elijah Fenton, Samuel Johnson (1825). “The Poetical Works of John Milton”, p.97

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