I have sat, a minister and ambassador, covered with gold lace, gaudy with ribbons and decorations, at the table of kings, the feasts of princes and princesses, only to fall once more into indigence and know imprisonment.
François-René de Chateaubriand in: Translated by A. S. Kline 2005, the Testamentary Preface 1833 François de Chateaubriand Mémoires d’outre-tombe, Preface:Sect2, poetryintranslation.com, 2005