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Quotes

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

—Pliny the Younger, c. 110

And what will history say of me a thousand years hence?

—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 59 BC

Those who know the joys and miseries of celebrities when they have passed the age of forty know how to defend themselves.

—Sarah Bernhardt, 1904

He who treats another human being as divine thereby assigns to himself the relative status of a child or an animal.

—E. R. Dodds, 1951

I am sick and tired of publicity. I want no more of it. It puts me in a bad light. I just want to be forgotten.

—Al Capone, 1929

They are trying to make me into a fixed star. I am an irregular planet.

—Martin Luther, c. 1530

Fame is no sanctuary from the passing of youth. Suicide is much easier and more acceptable in Hollywood than growing old gracefully.

—Julie Burchill, 1986

I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue than why I have one.

—Cato the Elder, c. 184 BC

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

—Persius, c. 60

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

—Erasmus, 1515

If fame is only to come after death, I am in no hurry for it.

—Martial, c. 86

What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.

—Voltaire, 1723

Famous, adj. Conspicuously miserable.

—Ambrose Bierce, 1906