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Quotes

Men are generally more pleased with a widespread than with a great reputation.

—Pliny the Younger, c. 110

Reality is always the foe of famous names.

—Petrarch, 1337

Fame will go by and, so long, I’ve had you, fame. If it goes by, I’ve always known it was fickle. So at least it’s something I experienced, but that’s not where I live.

—Marilyn Monroe, 1962

All people have the common desire to be elevated in honor, but all people have something still more elevated in themselves without knowing it.

—Mencius, c. 330 BC

How sweet it is to have people point and say, “There he is.”

—Persius, c. 60

I won’t be happy till I’m as famous as God.

—Madonna, c. 1985

Wood burns because it has the proper stuff in it, and a man becomes famous because he has the proper stuff in him.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, c. 1790

We all have a contract with the public—in us they see themselves, or what they would like to be.

—Clark Gable, 1935

Being a star has made it possible for me to get insulted in places where the average Negro could never hope to go and get insulted.

—Sammy Davis Jr., 1965

Most authors seek fame, but I seek for justice—a holier impulse than ever entered into the ambitious struggles of the votaries of that fickle, flirting goddess.

—Davy Crockett, 1834

What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.

—Erasmus, 1515

When I do a show, the whole show revolves around me, and if I don’t show up, they can just forget it.

—Ethel Merman, c. 1955

Famous, adj. Conspicuously miserable.

—Ambrose Bierce, 1906