Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

Yet was he but a squire of low degree.

Yet was he but a squire of low degree.

Content thyself to be obscurely good.
When vice prevails and impious men bear away,
The post of read more

Content thyself to be obscurely good.
When vice prevails and impious men bear away,
The post of honor is a private station.

Everybody is so talented nowadays that the only people I care to honour as deserving real distinction are those who read more

Everybody is so talented nowadays that the only people I care to honour as deserving real distinction are those who remain in obscurity.

Some write their wrongs in marble: he more just,
Stoop'd down serene and wrote them on the dust,
read more

Some write their wrongs in marble: he more just,
Stoop'd down serene and wrote them on the dust,
Trod under foot, the sport of every wind,
Swept from the earth and blotted from his mind,
There, secret in the grave, he bade them lie,
And grieved they could not 'scape the Almighty eye.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown,
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not read more

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown,
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

How often the highest talent lurks in obscurity.
[Lat., Ut saepe summa ingenia in occulto latent!]

How often the highest talent lurks in obscurity.
[Lat., Ut saepe summa ingenia in occulto latent!]

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.