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Quotes

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

—Voltaire, 1723

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. 

—Samuel Johnson, 1763

Being a star has made it possible for me to get insulted in places where the average Negro could never hope to go and get insulted.

—Sammy Davis Jr., 1965

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.

—Albert Einstein, 1931

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

—Persius, c. 60

Fame is but the empty noise of madmen.

—Epictetus, c. 100
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