Some for renown, on scraps of learning dote,
And think they grow immortal as they quote.

These lines come from Edward Young’s satirical poem "Love of Fame, the Universal Passion" (often cited as "The Universal Passion"), a series of verse satires aimed at fashionable vices and intellectual pretensions in early-18th-century Britain. Young repeatedly targets the social economy of “fame”—how writers, critics, and would‑be wits chase reputation through display rather than substance. In this setting, he mocks a type of aspirant scholar who collects quotations and fragments of erudition as social currency, hoping borrowed authority will confer lasting renown. The couplet belongs to Young’s broader critique of secondhand learning and the vanity of literary self-promotion.

Young satirizes a familiar literary vanity: the desire for fame achieved not through original thought but through ostentatious display of secondhand erudition. “Scraps of learning” suggests shallow, piecemeal knowledge, while “as they quote” targets those who treat citation and name-dropping as a substitute for insight. The couplet implies that such people mistake the appearance of scholarship for genuine intellectual achievement, imagining that repeating celebrated authorities will confer lasting reputation. In a broader moral key typical of Young, the lines warn that renown pursued through borrowed brilliance is hollow and ultimately self-deceiving.