Skip to content

Fame Quotes

Pope leads, followed by Shakespeare, Homer, Edward Young and Virgil, which is about right for a topic that was a poet’s favourite for centuries. The sourced lines are short. Milton’s Lycidas (1637) says fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil; Byron’s Monody on the Death of Sheridan (1816) says folly loves the martyrdom of fame; and Swift, in 1711, calls censure the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.

Flagged: a passage on living for something and leaving a monument of virtue, credited to Thomas Chalmers, is marked misattributed, and two Dryden passages, one about artists working for better fame and one about a poet’s chance of success, are disputed.

Random quote on Fame

Most quoted on fame:

Choose respect over fame every time. Fame is just attention. Respect is an attribute of love.

Lupe Fiasco

"Fame is like seasons. It's summer, it's winter. A mystery that is not clear what will happen at any moment."

Engin Benli

I wonder why we liked being praised. There’s no money in it. Fame? How famous could we get? He became famous: now he’s known to three.

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky Roadside Picnic (1972)

It’s a real honor to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, to be included with a class that includes people like Shaquille O’Neal.

Chanda Rubin

I was about to say, 'Avoid fame like the plague,' but you know, they can cure the plague with penicillin these days.

Larry Wall

The more info I read, the more the Rock & Roll hall of fame seems anti-rock. Rock was not meant to be judged by panels of old people.

Chris Cornell

But You know, Landscape is my mistress — 't is to her that I look for fame — and all that the warmth of the imagination renders dear to Man.

John Constable

They sang of love, and not of fame;
Forgot was Britain's glory;
Each heart recalled a different name,
But all sang Annie Lawrie.

Bayard Taylor The Song of the Camp (1856)

Popularity is a hasty and busy talker, she catches hold of topics and offers them to fame without giving herself time to reflect whether they are true or false.

John Clare Popularity of Authorship (1824)

I won a noble fame;
But with a sudden frown,
The people snatched my crown,
And, in the mire, trod down
My lofty name.

Theodore Tilton

Well, I haven't got wealth or fame, but I really think I might say, and I know how dangerous it is to say this — I think I have happiness.

Robertson Davies Conversations with Robertson Davies (1989)

You know that fame also has its hiccups. It's like water everywhere and none to drink. You will survive if only you have the grace.

Barbara Soky

Far or forgot to me is near;
Shadow and sunlight are the same;
The vanished gods to me appear;
And one to me are shame and fame.

Ralph Waldo Emerson May-Day and Other Pieces (1867)

I am a woman:—tell me not of fame.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon The Venetian Bracelet (1829)

Physicians of the Utmost Fame
Were called at once; but when they came
They answered, as they took their Fees,
"There is no Cure for this Disease."

Hilaire Belloc Cautionary Tales for Children (1907)

Music, for me, is a love bewitched.
Fame as a painter?
Writer, modern poet? Bad joke.
So I have no calling, and loaf.

Paul Klee

I aim to demystify the life of a celebrity, revealing the human side behind the fame, the choices I had to make, and the consequences.

Yvonne Nelson

I believe that humility can take one to any length in life, so I never allowed my position, fame or success to get into my head.

Grace Folashade Bent

Fame for me is not external, it’s internal. So I’ve been famous for a long time.

Lady Gaga

The vast applause shall reach the starry frame,
No years, no ages shall obscure thy fame,
And Earth's last ends shall hear thy darling name.

Marco Girolamo Vida De Arte Poetica (1527)

Related topics