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, 1929Quotes
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. 1961What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.
—Voltaire, 1723Possessions, 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.
—Albert Einstein, 1931Most 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, 1834All 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 BCFame is but the empty noise of madmen.
—Epictetus, c. 100Reality is always the foe of famous names.
—Petrarch, 1337Those who know the joys and miseries of celebrities when they have passed the age of forty know how to defend themselves.
—Sarah Bernhardt, 1904A woman’s greatest glory is to be little talked about by men, whether for good or ill.
—Pericles, c. 450 BCThey are trying to make me into a fixed star. I am an irregular planet.
—Martin Luther, c. 1530Men are generally more pleased with a widespread than with a great reputation.
—Pliny the Younger, c. 110Happy 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!
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1843