(1054)
FAME
Fame is the sound which the stream of high thoughts, carried down to future ages, makes as it flows; deep, distant, murmuring evermore like the waters of the mighty ocean. He who has ears truly touched to this music is, in a manner, deaf to the voice of popularity.—William Hazlitt.
(1055)
The following anecdote of Björnson, the Norwegian poet, illustrates the peculiar turn that seized a mischievous delegation:
Björnson was once asked on what occasion he got the greatest pleasure from his fame as a poet. His answer was:
“It was when a delegation from the Right came to my house in Christiania and smashed all the windows. Because, when they had thus attacked me and were starting for home again, they felt that they ought to sing something, and so they began to sing, ‘Yes, we love this land of ours.’ They could do nothing else! They had to sing the song of the man they had attacked.”
(1056)
FAME AND TIME