“Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth
A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.
Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth.
And Melancholy marked him for her own.”
The Epitaph, St. 1
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)
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Thomas Gray 81
English poet, historian 1716–1771Related quotes

"Ulysses" from Poems 1930-1933 (1933)<!-- li -->
Poems
Context: His wiles were witty and his fame far known,
Every king's daughter sought him for her own,
Yet he was nothing to be won or lost.
All lands to him were Ithaca: love-tossed
He loathed the fraud, yet would not bed alone.

"The Secret Inn : 'The Kingdom is Within You'" in Master Mind Magazine, Vol. VII, No. 3 (December 1914), p. 99

“His nobility led him to take a few steps in the direction of fortune, and then to despise her.”
Il avait, par grandeur d'âme, fait quelques pas vers la fortune, et par grandeur d'âme il la méprisa.
Maxims and Considerations, #548

As quoted in letter to Henry Ward Beecher, by Mark Twain.