“Fame has also this great drawback, that if we pursue it, we must direct our lives so as to please the fancy of men.”
“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!”
“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.”
“Worldly fame is but a breath of wind that blows now this way, and now that, and changes name as it changes direction.”
“What is fame? The advantage of being known by people of whom you yourself know nothing, and for whom you care as little.”
“Renown? I've already got more of it than those I respect, and will never have as much as those for whom I feel contempt..”
“Of all the possessions of this life fame is the noblest; when the body has sunk into the dust the great name still lives.”
“In the world of the celebrity, the hierarchy of publicity has replaced the hierarchy of descent and even of great wealth.”
“Fame, we may understand, is no sure test of merit, but only a probability of such; it is an accident, not a property of man.”
“Glory is like a circle in the water, which never ceaseth to enlarge itself, till, by broad spreading, it disperse to naught.”
“Being famous was extremely disappointing for me. When I became famous it was a complete drag and it is still a complete drag.”
“Let us not disdain glory too much; nothing is finer, except virtue. The height of happiness would be to unite both in this life.”
“Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime. And, departing, leave behind us footprints on the sands of time.”
“True glory takes root, and even spreads; all false pretences, like flowers, fall to the ground; nor can any counterfeit last long.”
“There is not in the world so toilsome a trade as the pursuit of fame; life concludes before you have so much as sketched your work.”
“Fame is the inheritance not of the dead, but of the living. It is we who look back with lofty pride to the great names of antiquity.”
“A celebrity is a person who works hard all of their life to become well known, and then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized.”
“If I'm such a legend, then why am I so lonely? Let me tell you, legends are all very well if you've got somebody around who loves you.”
“But the iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy, and deals with the memory of men without distinction to merit of perpetuity.”
“Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again.”
“Who would wish to be among the commonplace crowd of the little famous -- who are each individually lost in a throng made up of themselves?”
“Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them.”
“Each man has his appointed day: short and irreparable in the brief life of all, but to extend our fame by our deeds, this is the work of mankind.”
“The love of the famous, like all strong passions, is quite abstract. Its intensity can be measured mathematically, and it is independent of persons.”
“Fame is the echo of actions, resounding them to the world, save that the echo repeats only the last art, but fame relates all, and often more than all.”
“It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you, for it was the illusion they loved.”
“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.”
“Those who have known the famous are publicly debriefed of their memories, knowing as their own dusk falls that they will only be remembered for remembering someone else.”
“Fame is like a shaved pig with a greased tail, and it is only after it has slipped through the hands of some thousands, that some fellow, by mere chance, holds on to it!”
“Fame and power are the objects of all men. Even their partial fruition is gained by very few; and that, too, at the expense of social pleasure, health, conscience, life.”