Stoic Quotes on Fame and Vanity

You can tell the character of every man when you see how he gives and receives praise.

Seneca (Letters from a Stoic - Letter LII: On Choosing our Teachers)

Whenever externals are more important to you than your own integrity, then be prepared to serve them the remainder of your life.

Epictetus (Discourses, 108 A.D)

He who has a vehement desire for posthumous fame does not consider that every one of those who remember him will himself also die very soon.

Marcus Aurelius (Meditations - Book IV, 167 A.C.E.)

Don’t let outward appearances mislead you into thinking that someone with more prestige, power or some other distinction must on that account be happy.

Epictetus (Enchiridion)

Never value anything as profitable that compels you to break your promise, to lose your self-respect, to hate any man, to suspect, to curse, to act the hypocrite, to desire anything that needs walls and curtains.

Marcus Aurelius (Meditations - Book III, 167 A.C.E.)

Perhaps the desire of the thing called fame torments you. See how soon everything is forgotten, and look at the chaos of infinite time on each side of the present, and the emptiness of applause, and the fickleness and lack of judgment in those who pretend to give praise, and the narrowness of its domain, and be quiet at last.

Marcus Aurelius (Meditations - Book IV, 167 A.C.E.)