The Little Book of Stoicism

Practice 15

Forget Fame

“People who are excited by posthumous fame forget that the people who remember them will soon die too. And those after them in turn. Until their memory, passed from one to another like a candle flame, gutters and goes out.” – Marcus Aurelius

We’re better off if we’re indifferent to fame and social status. After all, it’s not within our control.

What do others think of us? Not up to us. We must not mistake outward success with what’s truly valuable—patience, confidence, self-control, forgiveness, perseverance, courage, and reason.

By seeking social status, we give other people power over us. We have to act in a calculated way to make them admire us, and we must refrain from doing things in their disfavor. We enslave ourselves by seeking fame.

Let’s rather focus on what we control—our voluntary behavior. Being the best we can be is what matters. Expressing our highest self in every moment. We shouldn’t seek thanks or recognition for doing the right thing. Doing the right thing is its own reward.

“When you’ve done well and another has benefited by it, why like a fool do you look for a third thing on top?” asks Marcus Aurelius. Instead of tying our well-being to what others think, we should tie it to our own actions. That’s all we control.

Your character and your behavior is what matters. That way you will do what’s right rather than what pleases others. Often, these are very different things. Get satisfaction from being your best. Forget about chasing fame and applause, focus on your virtuous behavior: acting with reason, courage, justice, and self-discipline.

Fame might come as a bonus from being a good person. But don’t do it for the fame—it’s uncertain, short-lived, and superfluous, as Marcus observes: “Consider the lives led once by others, long ago, the lives to be led by others after you, the lives led even now, in foreign lands. How many people don’t even know your name. How many will soon have forgotten it. How many offer you praise now—and tomorrow, perhaps, contempt. That to be remembered is worthless. Like fame. Like everything.”

Things almost change as you look at them, and then they will be forgotten.

Let’s be indifferent to what others think of us. Let’s be as dismissive of their approval as we are of their disapproval. And let’s focus on where our power lies—our well-intended actions. Doing the right thing is its own reward. Let’s find satisfaction in that.