Quotes about fame

Few people rise to our esteem upon closer scrutiny.

— French Proverb

Fame is a constant effort

— Jules Renard

Oblivion is the rule and fame the exception, of humanity.

— Antoine Rivarol

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..

— Jean Rostand

To become a celebrity is to become a brand name. There is Ivory Soap, Rice Krispies, and Philip Roth. Ivory is the soap that floats; Rice Krispies the breakfast cereal that goes snap-crackle-pop; Philip Roth the Jew who masturbates with a piece of liver.

— Philip Roth

Fame is but the breath of people, and that often unwholesome.

— Jean Jacques Rousseau

The majority of pop stars are complete idiots in every respect.

— Marquis De Sade

The highest form of vanity is love of fame.

— George Santayana

Of all the possessions of this life fame is the noblest; when the body has sunk into the dust the great name still lives.

— Johann Friedrich Von Schiller

Fame is something that must be won. Honor is something that must not be lost.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

The longer a man's fame is likely to last, the longer it will be in coming.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

We always hear about the haves and the have-nots. Why don't we hear about the doers and the do-nots.

— Thomas Sewell

Glory is like a circle in the water, which never ceaseth to enlarge itself, till, by broad spreading, it disperse to naught.

— William Shakespeare

Celebrity is never more admired than by the negligent.

— William Shakespeare

Death makes no conquest of this conqueror: For now he lives in fame, though not in life.

— William Shakespeare

Time hath a wallet at his back, wherein he puts. Alms for oblivion, a great-sized monster of ingratitudes.

— William Shakespeare

Because I have conducted my own operas and love sheep-dogs; because I generally dress in tweeds, and sometimes, at winter afternoon concerts, have even conducted in them; because I was a militant suffragette and seized a chance of beating time to The March of the Women from the window of my cell in Holloway Prison with a tooth-brush; because I have written books, spoken speeches, broadcast, and don't always make sure that my hat is on straight; for these and other equally pertinent reasons, in a certain sense I am well known.

— Dame Ethel Smyth

Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds.

— Socrates

The love of the famous, like all strong passions, is quite abstract. Its intensity can be measured mathematically, and it is independent of persons.

— Susan Sontag

Fame has also this great drawback, that if we pursue it, we must direct our lives so as to please the fancy of men.

— Baruch (Benedict de) Spinoza

What is fame? The advantage of being known by people of whom you yourself know nothing, and for whom you care as little.

— Leszczynski Stanislaus

The love of fame is the last weakness which even the wise resign.

— Publius Cornelius Tacitus

Even the best things are not equal to their fame.

— Henry David Thoreau

The difference between great celebrities and the unknown is the former failed and yet went at it again; the latter gave up in despair.

— Source Unknown

Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face. As soon as one is aware of being somebody, to be watched and listened to with extra interest, input ceases, and the performer goes blind and deaf in his over-animation. One can either see or be seen.

— John Updike

The fame you earn has a different taste from the fame that is forced upon you.

— Gloria Vanderbilt

Men's fame is like their hair, which grows after they are dead, and with just as little use to them.

— George Villiers

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.

— Virgil

Fame hides her head among the clouds.

— Virgil

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

— Voltaire

The day will come when everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.

— Andy Warhol

Being a sex symbol was rather like being a convict.

— Raquel Welch

What desire for fame attends both great and small; better be damned than mentioned not at all!

— John Wolcot

Sometimes I wish I weren't famous.

— Tammy Wynette

Knighthood lies above eternity; it doesn’t live off fame, but rather deeds.

— Dejan Stojanovic

Certainly, Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen and drowns things weighty and solid. But if persons of quality and judgement concur, then it is, (as the Scripture saith) Nomen bonum instar unguenti fragrantis : it filleth all round about, and will not easily away. For the odours of ointments are more durable than those of flowers.

— Francis Bacon

Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate.

— Emily Dickinson