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Quotes

And what will history say of me a thousand years hence?

—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 59 BC

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.

—Marilyn Monroe, 1962

Wood burns because it has the proper stuff in it, and a man becomes famous because he has the proper stuff in him.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, c. 1790

Reality is always the foe of famous names.

—Petrarch, 1337

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

—Cato the Elder, c. 184 BC

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

I won’t be happy till I’m as famous as God.

—Madonna, c. 1985

Famous, adj. Conspicuously miserable.

—Ambrose Bierce, 1906

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

—E. R. Dodds, 1951

They are trying to make me into a fixed star. I am an irregular planet.

—Martin Luther, c. 1530

Men are generally more pleased with a widespread than with a great reputation.

—Pliny the Younger, c. 110

What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.

—Erasmus, 1515

All 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 BC