All men cannot come out first each time. When you’ve reached the highest step on fame’s ladder, you’ll find it hard to keep your footing and fall more quickly than you rise: I fell, and so will the one who follows: fame belongs to no one man.

/ None the first place for ever can retain— But, ever as the topmost round you gain, Painful your station there and swift your fall. I fell—the next who wins with equal pain The slippery height, falls too—pride lifts, and lowers all. —William Bodham Donne, in William Smith, ed., Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Vol. 2 (London, 1850), p. 695