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  ...affections. The passions grafted on wounded pride are the most inveterate; they are green and vigorous in old age. We crave support in vanity, as we do in religion, and never forgive contradictions in that sphere; for however persistent and passionate such prejudices may be, we know too well that they are woven of thin air. A hostile word, by starting a contrary imaginative current, buffets them rudely and threatens to dissolve their being.
[Sidenote: Ambiguities of fame.]
The highest form of vanity is love of fame.   It is a passion easy to deride but hard to understand, and in men who live at all by imagination almost impossible to eradicate. The good opinion of posterity can have no possible effect on our fortunes, and the practical value which reputation may temporarily have is quite absent in posthumous fame. The direct object of this passion--that a name should survive in men's mouths to which no adequate idea of its original can be attached--seems a thin and fantastic satisfaction, especially...   Santayana, George

Excerpt from The Life of Reason · This quote is tagged Fame · Search on Google Books to find all references and sources for this quotation.

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