Some people obtain fame, others deserve it.
Meaning of the quote
Some people become famous, but others actually earned their fame. This quote means that there are two types of famous people: those who became famous just by luck or chance, and those who worked hard and deserve to be famous because of their achievements or contributions.
About Doris Lessing
Doris Lessing was a renowned British novelist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 87. Born in Iran to British parents, she lived in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) before moving to London in 1949. Her acclaimed works include The Grass Is Singing, the Children of Violence series, and the Canopus in Argos: Archives series.
More quotes from Doris Lessing
It is the mark of great people to treat trifles as trifles and important matters as important.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
We use our parents like recurring dreams, to be entered into when needed.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
A simple grateful thought turned heavenwards is the most perfect prayer.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
Borrowing is not much better than begging; just as lending with interest is not much better than stealing.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you’ve understood all your life, but in a new way.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
Some people obtain fame, others deserve it.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
There is only one real sin and that is to persuade oneself that the second best is anything but second best.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
You can’t be a Red if you’re married to a civil servant.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
For the last third of life there remains only work. It alone is always stimulating, rejuvenating, exciting and satisfying.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
Literature is analysis after the event.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
What’s terrible is to pretend that second-rate is first-rate. To pretend that you don’t need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you’re capable of better.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
Small things amuse small minds.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities simply by being given the opportunity to do so.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven’t changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don’t change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
What is a hero without love for mankind.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
Trust no friend without faults, and love a woman, but no angel.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
I don’t know much about creative writing programs. But they’re not telling the truth if they don’t teach, one, that writing is hard work, and, two, that you have to give up a great deal of life, your personal life, to be a writer.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
Pleasure resorts are like film stars and royalty… embarrassed by the figures they cut in the fantasies of people who have never met them.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
Man, who is he? Too bad, to be the work of God: Too good for the work of chance!
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
It is terrible to destroy a person’s picture of himself in the interests of truth or some other abstraction.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
Pearls mean tears.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
With a library you are free, not confined by temporary political climates. It is the most democratic of institutions because no one – but no one at all – can tell you what to read and when and how.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for yourself.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
In university they don’t tell you that the greater part of the law is learning to tolerate fools.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
This world is run by people who know how to do things. They know how things work. They are equipped. Up there, there’s a layer of people who run everything. But we – we’re just peasants. We don’t understand what’s going on, and we can’t do anything.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
In the writing process, the more a story cooks, the better.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
Space or science fiction has become a dialect for our time.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
If a fish is the movement of water embodied, given shape, then cat is a diagram and pattern of subtle air.
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer