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. 

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

Avoid the talk of men. For talk is mischievous, light, and easily raised, but hard to bear and difficult to be rid of. Talk never wholly dies away when many people voice her: even talk is in some ways divine.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I’m afraid of losing my obscurity. Genuineness only thrives in the dark. Like celery.

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

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!

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