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Quotes about fame

81 quotes from 64 people

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What dazzles, for the Moment spends its spirit:
What’s genuine, shall Posterity inherit.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe1749–1832Faust (1808), Prelude at the Theatre, spoken by PoetIn context
- Art
The Boast of Heraldry, the Pomp of Pow’r,
And all that Beauty, all that Wealth e’er gave,
Awaits alike th’ inevitable Hour.
The Paths of Glory lead but to the Grave.
Thomas Gray1716–1771Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751)In context
- Life & Death
The temple of fame stands upon the grave: the flame that burns upon its altars is kindled from the ashes of dead men.
William Hazlitt1778–1830Lectures on the English Poets (1818), Lecture VIII, “On the Living Poets”
- Life & Death
I never think of myself as an icon. What is in other people’s minds is not in my mind. I just do my thing.
Audrey Hepburn1929–1993How to be Lovely‎ (2005), p. 143
How many people live on the reputation of the reputation they might have made!
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.1809–1894The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858), Ch. 3
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
Risk nothing, get nothing. If you wanna be famous, then it’s OK if the music is fake, because fame isn’t real.
Josh Hommeborn 1973“Queens of the Stone Age: Josh Homme comes back from the brink” The Guardian (June 1, 2013)
- Music
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
No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784The Rambler (1750–1752), No. 106 (23 March 1751)
- Writing
The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV (1780)
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
Fourteen heart attacks and he had to die in my week. In MY week.
Janis Joplin1943–1970On losing the Newsweek cover to Dwight D. Eisenhower after his death; New Musical Express (12 April 1969), cited in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
- Comedy
Here lies one whose name was writ in water.
John Keats1795–1821Epitaph for himself (1821)
- Life & Death
Then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.
John Keats1795–1821When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be (1818)In context
- Love
To have news value is to have a tin can tied to one’s tail.
T. E. Lawrence1888–1935Letter (1 April 1935); published in The Letters of T.E. Lawrence (1988), edited by Malcolm Brown.
- Journalism