Those who know the joys and miseries of celebrities when they have passed the age of forty know how to defend themselves.

Reality is always the foe of famous names.

I am sick and tired of publicity. I want no more of it. It puts me in a bad light. I just want to be forgotten.

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

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.

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

Famous, adj. Conspicuously miserable.

Worldly fame is but a breath of wind that blows now this way, now that, and changes names as it changes in direction.

All people have the common desire to be elevated in honor, but all people have something still more elevated in themselves without knowing it.

Fame is but the empty noise of madmen.

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.

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

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