Archive

Quotes

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

—Erasmus, 1515

Now there is fame! Of all—hunger, misery, the incomprehension by the public—fame is by far the worst. It is the castigation by God of the artist. It is sad. It is true.

—Pablo Picasso, c. 1961

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

—Madonna, c. 1985

Worldly fame is but a breath of wind that blows now this way, now that, and changes names as it changes in direction.

—Dante Alighieri, c. 1315

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

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

—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 59 BC

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

—Martin Luther, c. 1530

There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

—Oscar Wilde, 1891

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

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

Fame is but the empty noise of madmen.

—Epictetus, c. 100

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

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

—Voltaire, 1723