Great men, unknown to their generation, have their fame among the great who have preceded them, and all true worldly fame subsides from their high estimate beyond the stars.

Our focus needs to be less on what our legacy’s going to be or how we can control each other and more how we can give to each other.

It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them.

Nothing that was worthy in the past departs; no truth or goodness realized by man ever dies, or can die.

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.

The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.

Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.

I don’t like Los Angeles. The people are awful and terribly shallow, and everybody wants to be famous but nobody wants to play the game. I’m from New York. I will kill to get what I need.

I have no interest in Shakespeare and all that British nonsense… I just wanted to get famous and all the rest is hogwash.

Little minds are interested in the extraordinary; great minds in the commonplace.

The one thing I want to leave my children is an honorable name.

It’s a very strange thing being recognized or looked upon as someone special.

A great thing can only be done by a great person; and they do it without effort.

Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.

People see me on the street, and they point to me, and they’re like, ‚Hey! All right, all right, all right!‘

When I won the first Grammy, there was no other feeling like that feeling. It just made me feel like I came so far, like that was just a dream a few years before that, and then it was happening right then.

We give speeches and pin ribbons onto uniforms, etch names into walls. And all that is fine, but too often, all those tributes, all those words aren’t always backed up by action. And that felt like such a stark contrast to me, because, as we all know, our military is all about action.

The fame thing is interesting because I never wanted to be famous, and I never dreamt I would be famous.

For this generation, ours, life is nuclear survival, liberty is human rights, the pursuit of happiness is a planet whose resources are devoted to the physical and spiritual nourishment of its inhabitants.

Because you know when you first become famous, you start walking a little different because people are staring at you.

Fame may go by and – so long, I’ve had you.

My reputation precedes me now.

These critics with the illusions they’ve created about artists – it’s like idol worship. They only like people when they’re on their way up… I cannot be on the way up again.

The movement of search can only be from the known to the known, and all that the mind can do is to be aware that this movement will never uncover the unknown. Any movement on the part of the known is still within the field of the known.

For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.

Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity.

‚Fame‘ exhausts me.

Man is only great when he acts from passion.

I didn’t come to Hollywood. Hollywood came to me. A lot of people wish they could say the things I say. Everyone out here is so phony, it’s sickening.

The ideal death, I think, is what was the ideal Victorian death, you know, with your grandchildren around you, a bit of sobbing. And you say goodbye to your loved ones, making certain that one of them has been left behind to look after the shop.

We can all be successful and make money, but when we die, that ends. But when you are significant is when you help other people be successful. That lasts many a lifetime.

I don’t know how much longer I’ll be around. I’ll probably be writing when the Lord says, ‚Maya, Maya Angelou, it’s time.‘

The postman wants an autograph. The cab driver wants a picture. The waitress wants a handshake. Everyone wants a piece of you.

My family’s lineage, we are warriors. The McGregor clan, we are warriors all through. We are famous all through the world for our fighting capabilities of all generations. So I have no doubt that’s stood to me and that led me down this path and gave me what I have.

A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him.

It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.

Great countries are those that produce great people.

Fame itself… doesn’t really afford you anything more than a good seat in a restaurant.

We are often attracted to the wrong things, whether it be money, fame, or approval.

There will be days when I walk in an arena and people will cheer and then there might be days when I walk in an arena and people might boo, but it all sounds the same to me because it’s all just noise that lets me know that I’m relevant.

No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish.

If anyone remembers me, it’s about my hard work.

The moment I said I’d finished a book, I knew what would happen. There would be a bidding war, and I would end up with someone who’d got the fattest wallet, who had bought it because I’d written Harry Potter. That would have been why.

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

Faith, there hath been many great men that have flattered the people who ne’er loved them.

Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.

I think the message has already been sent to Hollywood, which is that this kid’s a hard worker, he’s talented, and people are coming out to see him. And when you have box-office results, Hollywood treats you different. Hollywood stands up.

In art, at a certain level, there is no ‚better than.‘ It’s just about trying to operate for yourself on the most supreme level, artistically, that you can and hoping that people get it. Trusting that, just because of the way people are built and how interconnected we are, greatness will translate and symmetry will be recognised.

The men who followed Him were unique in their generation. They turned the world upside down because their hearts had been turned right side up. The world has never been the same.

Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended.

All my stepchildren carried the burden of my fame. Sometimes they would read terrible things about me, and I’d worry about whether it would hurt them. I would tell them: ‚Don’t hide these things from me. I’d rather you ask me these things straight out, and I’ll answer all your questions.‘

It confuses me and disappoints me when somebody says, ‚What does he do? What does he do?‘ My records are some of the biggest anthems ever. What do you think, they magically just appear? Obama walked out to my record.

To win MVP was a dream come true for sure, but there are guys who have done this multiple times.

God will not look you over for medals degrees or diplomas, but for scars.

I think that when you are famous every weakness is exaggerated.

The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.

To make America the greatest is my goal, so I beat the Russian and I beat the Pole. And for the U.S.A. won the medal of gold. The Greeks said, ‚You’re better than the Cassius of old.‘

I never wanted to be Marilyn – it just happened. Marilyn’s like a veil I wear over Norma Jeane.

If I’m a star, then the people made me a star.

I don’t have people following me around, like bodyguards. I don’t know how people live like that. Maybe the young movie stars have to live like that, I don’t know. But it seems a little crazy to me. I don’t think you need all that stuff.