Poets, orators, even philosophes, say the same things about fame we were told as boys to encourage us to win prizes. What they tell children to make them prefer being praised by their nannies to eating jam tarts is the same idea constantly drummed into us to encourage us to sacrifice our real interests in the hope of being praised by our contemporaries or by posterity.
[Ce que les poètes, les orateurs, même quelques philosophes nous disent sur l’amour de la Gloire, on nous le disait au Collège, pour nous encourager à avoir les prix. Ce que l’on dit aux enfans pour les engager à préférer à une tartelette les louanges de leurs bonnes, c’est ce qu’on répète aux hommes pour leur faire préférer à un intérêt personnel les éloges de leurs contemporains ou de la postérité.]Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 1, ¶ 85 (1795) [tr. Parmée (2003), ¶ 69]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:The things which poets, orators, and even a few philosophers tell us about the love of Glory, are exactly the things we are told at College to encourage us to win prizes. And what they say to children to make them prefer the praise of their nurses to a tartlet, they repeat to grown men to make them prefer the eulogy of their fellows or of posterity to personal advantage.
[tr. Mathers (1926)]All that the poets, the orators, and even certain philosophers tell us about the love of fame we were told at school to urge us to win prizes. All that is said to encourage children to prefer the praise of their mentors to a piece of pie is repeated to men to make them consider their personal profit less desirable than the plaudits of their contemporaries and of posterity.
[tr. Merwin (1969)]Things said by poets, orators, even some philosophers, about love of glory, were told to us at the Collège to encourage us to win prizes. What children are told to incline them to prefer a slice of tart to their nurses' approval, is the same as what men are repeatedly told to make them put the commendation of their contemporaries, or that of posterity, before their personal interest.
[tr. Pearson (1973)]What poets, orators, even several philosophers have said about the love of fame, was told to us at school to encourage us to win prizes.
[tr. Dusinberre (1992)]What poets, orators, and even philosophers say to us about love of glory is the same as what people said to us in the colleges to encourage us to compete for prizes. What people tell children to make them prefer the praise of their nurses to something silly is the same thing that people repeat to men to make them prefer the praise of their contemporaries or of posterity to their own self-interest.
[tr. Siniscalchi (1994)]
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