David Shields

I think the core of fans' relationship is one that vacillates schizophrenically and mercurially from reverence to resentment. Fans fetishize the players' athletic genius and both deify it and demonize it; witness the way awe turns into anger whenever a player holds out or flips off the offensive coordinator.

American Author

Mark Frost

In the fun house of today's metastisizing sports-entertainment megaplex, when every day brings another story revealing how these 'heroes' we create are fashioned from base clay, a pause might be in order to reflect on athletes who actually embodied the qualities we think we admire in the too-easily deified.

American Novelist

Mark Kurlansky

Things that become important to economies become ritualized and become deified. Because I'm Jewish, I always thought it was interesting that in Judaism, salt seals a bargain, particularly the covenant with God. Some people, when they bless bread, they dip it in salt. Same thing exists in Islam.

American Journalist

Marshall Goldsmith

We deify willpower and self-control - and mock its absence. People who achieve through remarkable willpower are 'strong' and 'heroic.' People who need help or structure are 'weak.' This is crazy - because few of us can accurately gauge or predict our willpower.

American Coach

Padmapriya Janakiraman

I started dancing at a young age. When I became busy with films and studies, dance took a back seat. Also, it was constricting for someone like me, who is not religious, to do something which is so deified.

Indian Actress

H. W. Brands

Reagan has been deified by the Republican Party, which is odd. The Reagan that modern Republicans revere is not the real Reagan.

American Historian

Mariella Frostrup

When a father of a daughter dies, you elevate them. And you sort of deify them.

British Journalist

Nicholas Galitzine

I think in the media we tend to deify people in these public spaces.

English Actor

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

There's no royalty in America, so people deify actors.

American Actor

The concept often relates to historical figures or entities revered in myths or religions.

Antiquity Connections

It can be a genuine religious act or a metaphor for extreme admiration.

Literal vs. Metaphorical

The term isn't commonly used in everyday contemporary speech.

Rare Modern Usage

Indicates an overwhelming and often unrealistic esteem for someone.

Intense Admiration

Don't confuse it with simple respect; deifying implies putting someone on a pedestal.

Avoid Confusion

The word can convey a tone of criticism when excessive admiration is implied.

Emotional Tone

Used to describe when ordinary things are made to seem extraordinary.

Exaggerating Importance

It's a strong word, so use it to imply a high degree of glorification.

Use Sparingly

 from and they did statue carving for religious reasons it makes perfect sense imagine their perspective on this we build statues and monuments to our deified ancestors because it's the right thing to do going back in time they

Terry Hunt and Carl...

 he had self-actualized. He was literally standing on a floating plexiglass deck over his adoring fans, who had no choice but to praise to Yeezus up above. He had deified himself. You can't become Yeezus in your living room.

3 ways to create a space...

 A national hero? Or public enemy number one? Historical figures are often controversial, but few were as deified or vilified in their lifetime

Deify