Fame Fame Quotes & Sayings

The thirst for fame is much greater than that for virtue; for who would embrace virtue itself if you take away its rewards?
[Lat., Tanto major famae sitis est quam
Virtutis: quis enim virtutem amplectitur ipsam
Praemia se tollas.] — Juvenal

Buffon said unreservedly, "Genius is simply patience carried to the extreme." To those who asked how he achieved fame he replied: "By spending forty years of my life bent over my writing desk." — Santiago Ramon Y Cajal

I have learned to regard fame as a will-o-wisp. — L. Frank Baum

At the end of my life, I have achieved belated fame and recognition in the city of my birth. — Leon Askin

Posthumous fame is a plant of tardy growth, for our body must be the seed of it; or we may liken it to a torch, which nothing but the last spark of life can light up; or we may compare it to the trumpet of the archangel, for it is blown over the dead; but unlike that awful blast, it is of earth, not of heaven, and can neither rouse nor raise us. — Charles Caleb Colton

You can't imagine fame. You can only ever see it from an outsider and comment on it with the rueful wisdom of a non participant. When it happens to you, it doesn't matter what age or how, it is a very steep learning curve. The imprtanot thing to realize in all of it is that life is short, to protect the ones you love, and not expose yourself to too much abuse or narcissistic reflection gazing and move on. If fame affords me the type of ability to do the kind of work I'm being offered, who am I to complain about the downsides. It's all relative. And this are obviously very high class problems. The way privacy becomes an every shrinking island is inevitable but also manageable and it doesn't necessary have to get that way ... — Benedict Cumberbatch

Now up and atom it's on, I was raised to be strong, and mama told me be a thug since the day I was born. The fame was a plot to try a change me, and what's strange is nobody knew my name. — Tupac Shakur

Prostrate on earth the bleeding warrior lies, And Isr'el's beauty on the mountains dies. How are the mighty fallen! Hush'd be my sorrow, gently fall my tears, Lest my sad tale should reach the alien's ears: Bid Fame be dumb, and tremble to proclaim In heathen Gath, or Ascalon, our shame Lest proud Philistia, lest our haughty foe, With impious scorn insult our solemn woe. — William Somervile

A writer doesn't dream of riches and fame, though those things are nice. A true writer longs to leave behind a piece of themselves, something that withstands the test of time and is passed down for generations. — C.K. Webb

Sheldon Adelson, for example, gave more than $53 million to Super PACs, but all eight of the candidates he supported lost.59 Karl Rove, a strategic mastermind who won fame advising George W. Bush, oversaw groups that spent $175 million and still lost twenty-one out of thirty elections. — Laurence H. Tribe

The favorites of fortune or of fame topple from their pedestals before our eyes without diverting us from ambition. — Luc De Clapiers

Let the dead have the immortality of fame, but the living the immortality of love. — Rabindranath Tagore

He is not dead who departs from life with a high and noble fame; but he is dead, even while living, whose brow is branded with infamy. — Ludwig Tieck

This pervasive craving to be recognized as special amounted to an abdication of power, an outsourcing of your core responsibilities. I spurned the fawning of strangers, but I did feel special to myself. I had found that "feeling special" was a private experience, and no one else's projected fascination could substitute for quiet absorption in your own life. — Lionel Shriver

After upwards of two thousand years Epicurus has been exonerated from the reproach that the doctrines of his philosophy recommended the pleasures of sensuality and voluptuousness as the chief good. Calumny may rest on genius a considerable part of a world's duration; what then is the value of fame? — William Benton Clulow

The only reason i love the courage of these individuals is that they take their family members as astray chicks, and the reason i don't want to belong to this category is because those chicks are far more important to me than trivial wealth and fame. — Michael Bassey Johnson

He was the best shot in India, and I expect that there are few better in London. Have you heard the name?'
'No, I have not.'
'Well, well, such is fame! — Arthur Conan Doyle

Sexual desire may burn like fire, but when you give a thought to when you are ill, then your excitement dies down. Fame and fortune may be sweet as candy, but when you give a thought to when you die, then their flavor is like chewing wax. Therefore, if people are usually concerned about death and illness, this can also dissolve unreal activities and develop longing for the way. — Zicheng Hong

Wisdom is neither gold, nor silver, nor fame, nor wealth, nor health, nor strength, nor beauty. — Plutarch

Fame and tranquility can never be bedfellows. — Michel De Montaigne

The life given us, by nature is short; but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Proclaim aloud the Saviour's fame, Who bears the Breaker's wond'rous name; Sweet name; and it becomes him well, Who breaks down earth, sin, death, and hell. — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

He who combines the useful and the pleasing wins out by both instructing and delighting the reader. That is the sort of book that will make money for the publisher, cross the seas, and extend the fame of the author. — Horace

Give me hunger, pain and want,
Shut me out with shame and failure
From your doors of gold and fame,
Give me your shabbiest, weariest hunger!
But leave me a little love. — Carl Sandburg

There's no hall of fame for that working class hero, no statue carved out of stone. And his greatest reward is the love of a woman and his children. — Alan Jackson

There's some downsides to being famous, which are not even worth mentioning. But to combat the bad sides of being famous, you really should take advantage of the good sides. The good sides are, you can use that fame to get projects you might not normally get. — Chris Rock

While fame impedes and constricts, obscurity wraps about a man like a mist; obscurity is dark, ample, and free; obscurity lets the mind take its way unimpeded. 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 Woolf

One current of continuity runs underneath all the abortive phases of my life. From childhood on I have been obliged to drop anything I was doing to run after any man who seemed to know a little more than I did about God ... I most want to write about: how a modern woman has sought the face of God-not the name nor the fame but the face [ital] of God-and what adventures came to meet her on this ancient human path. — Mary Antin

The gospel of Jesus Christ is more enduring than fame, more precious than riches, more to be desired than happiness. — Joseph B. Wirthlin

Why all this toil for triumphs of an hour? What tho' we wade in Wealth, or soar in Fame? Earth's highest station ends in 'Here he lies;' and 'Dust to dust' concludes the noblest songs. — Edward Young

But as nearly every denomination in the United States faces declining membership and waning influence, Christians may need to get used to the idea of measuring significance by something other than money, fame, and power. No one ever said the fruit of the Spirit is relevance or impact or even revival — Rachel Held Evans

I realise I'm behind on this but Rebekah Brooks was married to Ross Kemp of Gangs fame?! And she assaulted him? That explains so much. — Mandy Wiener

He came face-to-face with the rude paradox fame had dealt him: The secret of his extraordinary art had been his ability to observe human interaction anonymously, thereby gaining insight into the emotions on display in ordinary life
it was his ability to become a fly-on-the-wall that made him famous, and fame had destroyed his ability to become a fly-on-the-wall. — C.R. Strahan

Vanity is so closely allied to virtue, and to love the fame of laudable actions approaches so near the love of laudable actions for their own sake, that these passions are more capable of mixture than any other kinds of affection; and it is almost impossible to have the latter without some degree of the former. — David Hume

The drying up a single tear has more, of honest fame, than shedding seas of gore. — Lord Byron

I've been in the public eye for about 15 or 16 years and I'm very aware that fame is not a given. I have to maintain it. It's not just something that will always be there. — Victoria Beckham

Fame is also a test of character at times ... Sometimes I pass the test; sometimes I'm a pain in the ass. Sometimes I'm like, Oh, God! I just want to buy some tampons! — Meg Ryan

Years later, after other experiences with dogs, I wondered if their species were shaped and charmed to serve as four-legged guides able to assist in leading humanity back to our first - and lost - home. By the example of their joy and humility, by wanting nothing more than food and play and love, by the deep satisfaction that they take from those humble things, they belie all creeds of power and fame. Although they have the teeth to tear, it is by swish of tail and yearning eyes that they most easily get what they want. — Dean Koontz

Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds. — Socrates

With fame I become more and more stupid, which of course is a very common phenomenon. — Albert Einstein

Ask anything of men. Ask them to achieve wealth, fame, love, brutality, murder, self-sacrifice. But don't ask them to achieve self-respect. They will hate your soul. — Ayn Rand

There are many mediocre entertainers who don't aspire to much more than fame and glory. It's very easy to have them as your role models because there aren't as many greats. Go back, discover the greats, and take it from there. — Carmen Ejogo

Most people don't understand performers are really sheltered and protected so much sometimes that they don't get a chance to live their lives. — Diana Ross

When social critics deplore the materialism of our time and its preoccupation with money, fame, and superficial values, they overlook that the driving force behind the changes we have seen
one of the greatest periods of change in history
has been thought. It wasn't big bucks or social status that drove this change. It was, and is, the force of the play of the mind. As materialistic as we may be, playful thinking got us here. — Edward M. Hallowell

A society needs famous people; the question is whom it chooses for that role. Any criticism of its choice is by implication a criticism of that society. — Max Frisch

I should never have dreamed of purpose, I am coming to the conclusion that privacy, the small individual lives of men, are preferable to all this inflated macrocosmic activity. — Salman Rushdie

Fame is a skittish jade, more fickle even than Fortune, and apt to shy, and bolt, and plunge away on very trifling causes. — Anthony Trollope

I know this about celebrity (fame). Glory fades away. It's fickle. It comes and goes. — Adolph Caesar

Fifteen minutes of fame doesn't make a career. An article in a magazine, newspaper, interview on television or multiple print ads may stroke your ego, but nothing much else. An artist's career is a lifetime venture. Just because an artist is on top doesn't mean they are sheltered from a crash. As has been stated, the higher you climb, the harder you fall. — Jack White

The only good thing about fame that I've gotten is I've gotten out of a couple of speeding tickets. I've gotten into a restaurant when I didn't have a suit and tie on. That's really about it. — Bill Murray

The cinema has done more for my spiritual life than the church. My ideas of fame, success and beauty all originate from the big screen. Whereas Christian religion is retreating everywhere and losing more and more influence; film has filled the vacuum and supports us with myths and action-controlling images. — John Updike

Amidst all of these flashing lights I pray the fame wont take my life. — Lady Gaga

I know change is possible, I know there is an alternative, because I live a completely different life to the one I was born with. I also know that the solution is not fame or money or any transient adornment of the individual. The only Revolution that can really change the world is the one in your own consciousness, and mine has already begun. — Russell Brand

Everyone in Hollywood is seeking fame and fortune; it's in the water here. Everyone from young women to old men - they all want it. — Karrine Steffans

In my youth I thought I was going to be a professional rugby player. — Georgie Fame

If I had known that this movie would bring so much craziness, I don't know if I would have said 'yes' to the Twilight Saga. I never asked to be a poster-boy. — Robert Pattinson

To serve thy generation, this thy fate: "Written in water," swiftly fades thy name; But he who loves his kind does, first and late, A work too late for fame. — Mary C. Ames

I grew up being the girl who would always tune in to watch famous people talk about their careers, how they handled scandals and mega fame. I'm trying to pick up tips. — Rebecca Black

A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley ... He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: To Harry Potter - the boy who lived! — J.K. Rowling

You're cranky because you're tired," Amos said. "You got that I-have-to-save-everyone hangup, so I make it that you haven't slept in about two days. But listening to people bitch? Yeah, that's sorta your job. It's why you make the big money." "We make the same money." "Then I guess you're doing it for the fame and glory." "I hate you," Holden said. — James S.A. Corey

Where do we get the notion that our idea of success and God's are the same? You have written a book; you are a clever manager and promoter; you are a talented artist; you are independently wealthy; you have achieved fame and fortune. Without the gifts of intelligence, imagination, personality, and physical energy - which are all endowed by God - where would you be? — Billy Graham

Do not confuse notoriety and fame with greatness ... For you see, greatness is a measure of one's spirit, not a result of one's rank in human affairs. — Sherman Glenn Finesilver

A fierce hatred of embarrassment ruled a surprising amount of the life of Moses Malone, the Hall of Fame basketball center. — Joseph Bottum

The Celestial (Heavenly Gods) become pleased with the one who isn't hungry for fame and recognition. The whole world can be pleased with us, but because of our hunger they are not pleased with us. — Dada Bhagwan

Don't try to make yourself marketable, you'll be surprised to see yourself at the bottom. Stay incognito, and people will peruse the whole world looking for you, by that time, you'll be at the top. — Michael Bassey Johnson

Never trust the occultist who tells you that he is the head of a tradition, because if he were, in the first place, he would not tell the fact to the uninitiated, and in the second place he would in all probability be living in great seclusion and inaccessible to all but his immediate subordinates. If a man is a great artist he does not need to inform us of the fact; we shall know him by his pictures that are hung in the galleries of the nation, and we shall, moreover, find that he guards himself from casual acquaintances because of the inroads on his time to which his fame renders him liable. The more eminent a person, the harder he is to approach, not out of any spirit of pride and exclusiveness, but because so many people want to see him that discrimination has to be used in admitting them. — Dion Fortune

October 1976 was the penultimate performance of Bench's Hall of Fame career. All the early success and awards and accolades thrown in his direction had prepared him for this moment - when the Big Red Machine became a dynasty by defending it's World Championship from the season before. — Tucker Elliot

But what made him still more fortunate, as he said himself, was having a daughter of such exceeding beauty, rare intelligence, gracefulness, and virtue, that everyone who knew her and beheld her marvelled at the extraordinary gifts with which heaven and nature had endowed her. As a child she was beautiful, she continued to grow in beauty, and at the age of sixteen she was most lovely. The fame of her beauty began to spread abroad through all the villages around - but why do I say the villages around, merely, when it spread to distant cities, and even made its way into the halls of royalty and reached the ears of people of every class, who came from all sides to see her as if to see something rare and curious, or some wonder-working image? — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

I believe that the purpose of influence is to speak up for those who have no influence. And fame is not for our own benefit, or notoriety is not for our own benefit, it's for leverage to do good. — Rick Warren

I always heard criticism is the tax on fame. They were right. And then some. — Brad Pitt

All serious writers want the obvious rewards: fame, money, women, love
and most of all, an audience! — Edward Abbey

Thanks for comin out, God bless you, good night ...
What of fame?
Everyone knows your face, the world screams your name
And never again, are you alone.. — Tupac Shakur

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph. — Shirley Temple Black

When you get quick fame and success and exposure, it makes you feel dizzy, and I didn't want to lose my balance 'cause that's something I've been struggling with for so many years. I'm not fond of the idea of making it in Hollywood. That's not my aim; otherwise, I would have settled down in Los Angeles. — Ludivine Sagnier

A man should not be judged by his fame, power, or money, but rather by how much love he gives to others. — Sandranil Biswas

Blessed is he whose fame does not outshine his truth. — Rabindranath Tagore

Fame is hollow. It amplifies what is there. If there is any self-doubt, or hatred, or lack of ability to connect with people, fame will magnify it. — Alanis Morissette

He might be famous (local newspaper or television) for finding it, true - but if fame takes away the thing it celebrates, then Sebastien would prefer the inspired silence. We're all famous in our own hearts anyway. — Simon Van Booy

If you are ambitious of climbing up to the difficult, and in a manner inaccessible, summit of the Temple of Fame, your surest way is to leave on one hand the narrow path of Poetry, and follow the narrower track of Knight-Errantry, which in a trice may raise you to an imperial throne. — Miguel De Cervantes

I never wanted fame, of all things, and I'm not just being cheeky. There are benefits that come with being famous, but there's also confusion. It's important to make sure your feet stay on the ground. — Grace Park

You will never see the four original Pumpkins on stage ever again, unless it's a Hall of Fame thing. But you would never see a tour. There's so much damage, there's no way. — Billy Corgan

An overall picture of how a developing country with considerable amount of natural resources may get in trouble can be described by discussing the lack of absorption capacity where overspending on domestically produced goods leads to increased price level.Further, an inefficient choice of public policy cause poor economic performance through the mismanagement of budget expenditure. In this case governments undertake projects not to achieve social optimality rather to increase their fame. Hence "easy money" may easily lead to increased corrupt activities in contracting projects thereby affecting negatively the transparency level and the competitiveness of market economy — Anonymous

I know I've got a lock on the Dutch Hall of Fame. — Bert Blyleven

Fame is proof that the people are gullible. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

The businessman who wishes to gain a market by throttling a superior competitor, the worker who wants a share of his employer's wealth, the artist who envies a rival's higher talent - they're all wishing facts out of existence and destruction is the only means of their wish. If they pursue it, they will not achieve a market, a fortune, or an immortal fame - they will merely destroy production — Ayn Rand

Fame is not the glory! Virtue is the goal, and fame only a messenger, to bring more to the fold. — Vanna Bonta

Around the mighty master came
The marvels which his pencil wrought,
Those miracles of power whose fame
Is wide as human thought. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Let me write not for fame and laurel, but from the mere yearning and fondness I have for the beautiful even if my night's labors be burnt each morning and no eye ever shine upon them. — John Keats

and it was the pride and ambition of the Jewish people to co-operate in the front ranks to carry on the former glory of the fame of Viennese culture. — Stefan Zweig

I cannot deal with obscurity for more than a few decades before I get the worst ache in my chest. — Thomm Quackenbush

Looking back, I have come to realize that the gang lifestyle back then - the fame, the respect, and the recognition - was stronger and powerful than any drug. We were serious with what we were dealing with. It was like a do or die situation. Shelton 'Apples' Burrows reform gang leader — Drexel Deal

Your aim will be knowledge and wisdom, not the reflected glamour of fame. — Abbott L. Lowell

Fame made me develop a panic disorder. — Sia Furler

The thing about fame, is you never think it's going to happen to you. So when it does, it's sort of a shock. Some people are just better at it than others. — Orlando Bloom

When I started off, I didn't only ride to fame on my looks though many people I know think otherwise. — Natasha Henstridge

You don't start a company because you want to be an entrepreneur or the fame and glory that comes along with it. You become an entrepreneur, and you create a company to solve a real problem. And by real problem, I mean a problem that is going to exist down the line. — Aaron Patzer

Fame and fortune, how empty they can be. — Elvis Presley

What then is to be the lot of Rossetti's fame and influence? 'An amateur who failed in two arts', it is true; yet it hardly harms Rossetti or touches his standing. On the contrary, it defines both very brilliantly. The small word 'failed' is a small word and little more to artists who are forever going on until they give up over a game that must be lost. Every artist, when confronted by the immensities of art, which is life, must confess to failure. A failure is a thing very relative. — Ford Madox Ford

People aren't honest about the horrors of fame. The downsides are so overwhelming that, for me, there is no payoff. — Sia Furler

The love of fame is a passion natural and universal, which no man, however high or mean, however wise or ignorant, was yet able to despise. — Samuel Johnson