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Quotes about fame

81 quotes from 64 people

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Men of action, above all those whose actions are guided by love, live forever. Other famous men, those of much talk and few deeds, soon evaporate. Action is the dignity of greatness.
José Martí1853–1895Martí: Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)
Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable. Fame usually comes to those who are thinking about something else,⁠—very rarely to those who say to themselves, “Go to, now, let us be a celebrated individual!”
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.1809–1894The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858), Ch. 12
I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III (26 March 1779)
- Writing
In the media age, everybody was famous for 15 minutes. In the Wikipedia age, everybody can be an expert in five minutes.
Stephen Colbertborn 1964Wired Magazine article (14 August 2006)
- Internet
I have learned to regard fame as a will-o-the-wisp which, when caught, is not worth the possession; but to please a child is a sweet and lovely thing that warms one’s heart and brings its own reward.
L. Frank Baum1856–1919Personal inscription on a copy of Mother Goose in Prose (1897) which he gave to his sister, Mary Louise Baum Brewster, as quoted in The Making of the Wizard of Oz (1998) by Aljean Harmetz, p. 317
- Children
I awoke one morning and found myself famous.
Lord Byron1788–1824Memorandum reference to the instantaneous success of Childe Harold and quoted in Letters and Journals of Lord Byron by Thomas Moore (1830), chapter 14.
Over the obscure man is poured the merciful suffusion of darkness. None knows where he goes or comes. He may seek the truth and speak it; he alone is free; he alone is truthful, he alone is at peace.
Virginia Woolf1882–1941Orlando: A Biography (1928), Ch. 2
- Freedom
Fame sometimes hath created something of nothing.
Thomas Fuller1608–1661The Holy State and the Profane State (1642), Of Fame
How many worthy men have we seen survive their own reputation!
Michel de Montaigne1533–1592Essays, Book II, Ch. 16, Of Glory
The Pyramids themselves, doting with age, have forgotten the names of their founders.
Thomas Fuller1608–1661The Holy State and the Profane State (1642), Of Tombs
- Time
Where men are forbidden to honor a king they honor millionaires, athletes, or film-stars instead.
C. S. Lewis1898–1963Equality (1943)
I think fame itself is not a rewarding thing. The most you can say is that it gets you a seat in restaurants.
David Bowie1947–2016Interviewed in Q magazine (April 1990)
Thus man passes away; his name perishes from record and recollection; his history is as a tale that is told, and his very monument becomes a ruin.
Washington Irving1783–1859The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819–1820), “Westminster Abbey”
- Life & Death
All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution. There is no defense against reproach but obscurity.
Joseph Addison1672–1719The Spectator (1711–1714), No. 101 (26 June 1711)
There is never any real danger in allowing a pedestal for a hero. He never has time to sit on it. One sees him always over and over again kicking his pedestal out from under him, and using it to batter a world with.
Gerald Stanley Lee1862–1944Crowds (1913), Book V, Part III, Chapter XVI.
- Character