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!
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1843Quotes
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. 1315A woman’s greatest glory is to be little talked about by men, whether for good or ill.
—Pericles, c. 450 BCWhat is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.
—Erasmus, 1515I’m afraid of losing my obscurity. Genuineness only thrives in the dark. Like celery.
—Aldous Huxley, 1925Avoid 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.
—Hesiod, c. 700 BCThose who know the joys and miseries of celebrities when they have passed the age of forty know how to defend themselves.
—Sarah Bernhardt, 1904If fame is only to come after death, I am in no hurry for it.
—Martial, c. 86Famous, adj. Conspicuously miserable.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906How sweet it is to have people point and say, “There he is.”
—Persius, c. 60Fame is no sanctuary from the passing of youth. Suicide is much easier and more acceptable in Hollywood than growing old gracefully.
—Julie Burchill, 1986We all have a contract with the public—in us they see themselves, or what they would like to be.
—Clark Gable, 1935Being 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