And what will history say of me a thousand years hence?
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 59 BCQuotes
Fame is no sanctuary from the passing of youth. Suicide is much easier and more acceptable in Hollywood than growing old gracefully.
—Julie Burchill, 1986All 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 BCNow 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. 1961They are trying to make me into a fixed star. I am an irregular planet.
—Martin Luther, c. 1530Happy 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, 1843I’m afraid of losing my obscurity. Genuineness only thrives in the dark. Like celery.
—Aldous Huxley, 1925I won’t be happy till I’m as famous as God.
—Madonna, c. 1985Reality is always the foe of famous names.
—Petrarch, 1337Worldly 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. 1315Famous, adj. Conspicuously miserable.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906We all have a contract with the public—in us they see themselves, or what they would like to be.
—Clark Gable, 1935When I do a show, the whole show revolves around me, and if I don’t show up, they can just forget it.
—Ethel Merman, c. 1955