One would like to be grand and heroic, if one could; but if not, why try at all? One wants to be very something, very great, very heroic; or if not that, then at least very stylish and very fashionable. It is this everlasting mediocrity that bores me.
Bio: Joseph Fouché, 1st Duc d'Otrante was a French statesman and Minister of Police under Napoleon I. In English texts, his title is often translated as Duke of Otranto.
