I think fame itself is not a rewarding thing. The most you can say is that it gets you a seat in restaurants.
See how the World its Veterans rewards! A Youth of Frolics, an old Age of Cards; Fair to no purpose, artful to no end, Young without Lovers, old without a Friend; A Fop their Passion, but their Prize a Sot; Alive ridiculous, and dead forgot.
They can expect nothing but their labor for their pains. - Cervantes
What is called honors and dignities, and even honor and dignity, is generally fool's gold.
The glittering baits of titles and honours are only for children and fools.
So instead of investing your time in a passion, you’ve sold your life to work for an uncaring machine that doesn’t understand you. That’s the problem with our society. And what’s the reward? Go home and get a big TV.
What well-advised ear regards What earth can say? Thy words are gold, but thy rewards Are painted clay.
All our lives we are putting pennies — our most golden pennies — into penny-in-the-slot machines that are almost always empty.
To Yossarian, the idea of pennants as prizes was absurd. No money went with them, no class privileges. Like Olympic medals and tennis trophies, all they signified was that the owner had done something of no benefit to anyone more capably than everyone else.
