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

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.

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

There lurks in every human heart a desire of distinction which inclines every man first to hope and then to believe that nature has given him something peculiar to himself. 

Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury—to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.

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

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

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

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

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

A woman’s greatest glory is to be little talked about by men, whether for good or ill.

Happy is the man who hath never known what it is to taste of fame—to have it is a purgatory, to want it is a hell!

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