Greatness Quotes
You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration.Greatness
Allen, James
1864-1912 British-born American Essayist Author of As a Man Thinketh
Great men are true men, the men in whom nature has succeeded. They are not extraordinary -- they are in the true order. It is the other species of men who are not what they ought to be.
Greatness
Amiel, Henri Frederic
1821-1881 Swiss Philosopher Poet Critic
Greatness is a spiritual condition.
Greatness
Arnold, Matthew
1822-1888 British Poet Critic
The first element of greatness is fundamental humbleness (this should not be confused with servility); the second is freedom from self; the third is intrepid courage, which, taken in its widest interpretation, generally goes with truth; and the fourth --the power to love --although I have put it last, is the rarest.
Greatness
Asquith, Margot
1864-1945 British Socialite
We shall never resolve the enigma of the relation between the negative foundations of greatness and that greatness itself.
Greatness
Baudrillard, Jean
French Postmodern Philosopher Writer
Because you are a great lord, you believe yourself to be a great genius. You took the trouble to be born, but no more.
Greatness
Beaumarchais, Pierre De
1732-1799 French Dramatist
The dullard s envy of brilliant men is always assuaged by the suspicion that they will come to a bad end.
Greatness
Beerbohm, Sir Max
1872-1956 British Actor
Great men are not always wise.
Greatness
Bible
Sacred Scriptures of Christians and Judaism
The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.
Greatness
Bonaparte, Napoleon
1769-1821 French General Emperor
Great people are meteors designed to burn so that the earth may be lighted.
Greatness
Bonaparte, Napoleon
1769-1821 French General Emperor
Greatness be nothing unless it be lasting.
Greatness
Bonaparte, Napoleon
1769-1821 French General Emperor
The greatness of a man s power is the measure of his surrender.
Greatness
Booth, William
1829-1912 British Religious Leader Salvation Army Founder
All your youth you want to have your greatness taken for granted; when you find it taken for granted, you are unnerved.
Greatness
Bowen, Elizabeth
1899-1973 Anglo-Irish Novelist
No one who has come to true greatness has not felt in some degree that his life belongs to the people, and what God has given them he gives it for mankind.
Greatness
Brooks, Phillips
1835-1893 American Minister Poet
False greatness is unsociable and remote: conscious of its own frailty, it hides, or at least averts its face, and reveals itself only enough to create an illusion and not be recognized as the meanness that it really is. True greatness is free, kind, familiar and popular; it lets itself be touched and handled, it loses nothing by being seen at close quarters; the better one knows it, the more one admires it.
Greatness
Bruyere, Jean De La
1645-1696 French Classical Writer
The great must submit to the dominion of prudence and of virtue, or none will long submit to the dominion of the great.
Greatness
Burke, Edmund
1729-1797 British Political Writer Statesman
Great men are the guideposts and landmarks in the state.
Greatness
Burke, Edmund
1729-1797 British Political Writer Statesman
Sighing that Nature formed but one such man, and broke the die.
Greatness
Byron, Lord
1788-1824 British Poet
What millions died that Caesar might be great?
Greatness
Campell, Joseph
All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning.
Greatness
Camus, Albert
1913-1960 French Existential Writer
The difference between Socrates and Jesus? The great conscious and the immeasurably great unconscious.
Greatness
Carlyle, Thomas
1795-1881 Scottish Philosopher Author
No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men.
Greatness
Carlyle, Thomas
1795-1881 Scottish Philosopher Author
All great men are gifted with intuition. They know without reasoning or analysis, what they need to know.
Greatness
Carrel, Alexis
1873-1944 French Biologist
I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great.
Greatness
Charles, Ray
1930 American Musician Singer Songwriter
Great merit, or great failings, will make you respected or despised; but trifles, little attentions, mere nothings, either done or neglected, will make you either liked or disliked in the general run of the world.
Greatness
Chesterfield, Lord
1694-1773 British Statesman Author
There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great.
Greatness
Chesterton, Gilbert K.
1874-1936 British Author
Great and good are seldom the same man.
Greatness
Churchill, Winston
1874-1965 British Statesman Prime Minister
The price of greatness is responsibility.
Greatness
Churchill, Winston
1874-1965 British Statesman Prime Minister
Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends.
Greatness
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
1772-1834 British Poet Critic Philosopher
Some have greatness thrust upon them, but not lately.
Greatness
Dane, Frank
He s the greatest man who ever came out of Plymouth, Vermont. [On Calvin Coolidge]
Greatness
Darrow, Clarence
1857-1938 American Lawyer
It is a melancholy truth that even great men have their poor relations.
Greatness
Dickens, Charles
1812-1870 British Novelist
Man is only truly great when he acts from his passions.
Greatness
Disraeli, Benjamin
1804-1881 British Statesman Prime Minister
A great person is one who affects the mind of their generation.
Greatness
Disraeli, Benjamin
1804-1881 British Statesman Prime Minister
At most, the greatest persons are but great wens, and excrescences; men of wit and delightful conversation, but as morals for ornament, except they be so incorporated into the body of the world that they contribute something to the sustentation of the whole.
Greatness
Donne, John
1572-1632 British Metaphysical Poet
I can write good songs. I can sing em, and I mean it, I mean it deeply, and I pour everything into that. Other than that, I suck.
Greatness
Duritz, Adam
1965 American Musician Singer Songwriter
Despite everybody who has been born and has died, the world has just gone on. I mean, look at Napoleon --but we went right on. Look at Harpo Marx --the world went around, it didn t stop for a second. It s sad but true. John Kennedy, right?
Greatness
Dylan, Bob
1941 American Musician Singer Songwriter
No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.
Greatness
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
1803-1882 American Poet Essayist
Not he is great who can alter matter, but he who can alter my state of mind.
Greatness
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
1803-1882 American Poet Essayist
The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough.
Greatness
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
1803-1882 American Poet Essayist
The measure of a master is his success in bringing all men around to his opinion twenty years later.
Greatness
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
1803-1882 American Poet Essayist
The search after the great men is the dream of youth, and the most serious occupation of manhood.
Greatness
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
1803-1882 American Poet Essayist
To be great is to be misunderstood.
Greatness
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
1803-1882 American Poet Essayist
A great man stands on God. A small man on a great man.
Greatness
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
1803-1882 American Poet Essayist
Great people are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force, that thoughts rule the world.
Greatness
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
1803-1882 American Poet Essayist
He is great who is what he is from nature, and who never reminds us of others.
Greatness
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
1803-1882 American Poet Essayist
No great thing is created suddenly.
Greatness
Epictetus
50-120 Stoic Philosopher
I distrust Great Men. They produce a desert of uniformity around them and often a pool of blood too, and I always feel a little man s pleasure when they come a cropper.
Greatness
Forster, Edward M.
1879-1970 British Novelist Essayist
There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.
Greatness
Franklin, Benjamin
1706-1790 American Scientist Publisher Diplomat
The essence of greatness is neglect of the self.
Greatness
Froude, James A.
1818-1894 British Historian
It s not what you take but what you leave behind that defines greatness.
Greatness
Gardner, Edward
American Businessman Founder of Soft Sheen Products
The lights of stars that were extinguished ages ago still reaches us. So it is with great men who died centuries ago, but still reach us with the radiations of their personalities.
Greatness
Gibran, Kahlil
1883-1931 Lebanese Poet Novelist
There are no great men, only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet.
Greatness
Halsey, William F.
American Admiral
No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history.
Greatness
Hazlitt, William
1778-1830 British Essayist
There would be no great men if there were no little ones.
Greatness
Herbert, George
1593-1632 British Metaphysical Poet
Great men are rarely isolated mountain-peaks; they are the summits of ranges.
Greatness
Higginson, Thomas Wentworth
1823-1911 American Clergyman Writer
Greatness does not approach him who is forever looking down.
Greatness
Hitopadesa
600-1100 AD Sanskrit Fable From Panchatantra
A great man s greatest good luck is to die at the right time.
Greatness
Hoffer, Eric
1902-1983 American Author Philosopher
To have a great man for a friend seems pleasant to those who have never tried it; those who have, fear it.
Greatness
Horace
BC 65-8 Italian Poet
After a fellow gets famous it does not take long for someone to bob up that used to sit next to him in school.
Greatness
Hubbard, Kin
1868-1930 American Humorist Journalist
There is a sacred horror about everything grand. It is easy to admire mediocrity and hills; but whatever is too lofty, a genius as well as a mountain, an assembly as well as a masterpiece, seen too near, is appalling.
Greatness
Hugo, Victor
1802-1885 French Poet Dramatist Novelist
Great woman belong to history and to self sacrifice.
Greatness
Hunt, Leigh
1784-1859 British Poet Essayist
He was dull in a new way, and that made many think him great.
Greatness
Johnson, Samuel
1709-1784 British Author
No one ever became great by imitation.
Greatness
Johnson, Samuel
1709-1784 British Author
The superiority of some men is merely local. They are great because their associates are little.
Greatness
Johnson, Samuel
1709-1784 British Author
Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don t have to have a college degree to serve. You don t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. you only need a heart full of grace. a soul generated by love.
Greatness
King Jr. Martin Luther
1929-1968 American Black Leader Nobel Prize Winner 1964
A position of eminence makes a great person greater and a small person less.
Greatness
La Bruyere, Jean De
1645-1696 French Writer
Neither wealth or greatness render us happy.
Greatness
La Fontaine, Jean De
1621-1695 French Poet
To achieve greatness one should live as if they will never die.
Greatness
La Rochefoucauld, Francois De
1613-1680 French Classical Writer
Great men always pay deference to greater.
Greatness
Landor, Walter Savage
1775-1864 British Poet Essayist
I want to be great, something special.
Greatness
Leonard, Sugar Ray
1956 American Boxer
There are people who possess not so much genius as a certain talent for perceiving the desires of the century, or even of the decade, before it has done so itself.
Greatness
Lichtenberg, Georg C.
1742-1799 German Physicist Satirist
Traditionally the great men of our country have sprung from poor environments; that being so, it would appear we have long suffered from a severe lack of poverty.
Greatness
Lieberman, Gerald F.
American Writer
Whatever you are, be a good one.
Greatness
Lincoln, Abraham
1809-1865 Sixteenth President of the USA
In our society those who are in reality superior in intelligence can be accepted by their fellows only if they pretend they are not.
Greatness
Mannes, Marya
1904-1990 American Writer
You know, sometimes, when they say you re ahead of your time, it s just a polite way of saying you have a real bad sense of timing.
Greatness
Mcgovern, George
1922 American Democratic Politician
The world isn t kept running because it s a paying proposition. (God doesn t make a cent on the deal.) The world goes on because a few men in every generation believe in it utterly, accept it unquestioningly; they underwrite it with their lives.
Greatness
Miller, Henry
1891-1980 American Author
It is always the adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires.
Greatness
Montesquieu, Charles De
1689-1755 French Jurist Political Philosopher
Let us never forget that the greatest man is never more than an animal disguised as a god.
Greatness
Picabia, Francis
1878-1953 French Painter Poet
Those who intend on becoming great should love neither themselves or their own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by themselves or others.
Greatness
Plato
BC 427-347 Greek Philosopher
Nobody s ever the greatest anything.
Greatness
Polak, Maralyn
The first step toward greatness is to be honest.
Greatness
Proverb
The greatest men of a nation are those it puts to death.
Greatness
Renan, Ernest
1823-1892 French Writer Critic Scholar
Greatness, in order to gain recognition, must all too often consent to ape greatness.
Greatness
Rostand, Jean
1894-1977 French Biologist Writer
Great men never make bad use of their superiority. They see it and feel it and are not less modest. The more they have, the more they know their own deficiencies.
Greatness
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
1712-1778 Swiss Political Philosopher Educationist Essayist
A great thing can only be done by a great person; and they do it without effort.
Greatness
Ruskin, John
1819-1900 British Critic Social Theorist
Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.
Greatness
Schopenhauer, Arthur
1788-1860 German Philosopher
It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god.
Greatness
Seneca
4 BC – 65 AD Spanish-born Roman Statesman philosopher
He is not great who is not greatly good.
Greatness
Shakespeare, William
1564-1616 British Poet Playwright Actor
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them. [Twelfth Night]
Greatness
Shakespeare, William
1564-1616 British Poet Playwright Actor
In my stars I am above thee, but be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness ;thrust upon em.
Greatness
Shakespeare, William
1564-1616 British Poet Playwright Actor
Th abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power.
Greatness
Shakespeare, William
1564-1616 British Poet Playwright Actor
Be not afraid of greatness; some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.
Greatness
Shakespeare, William
1564-1616 British Poet Playwright Actor
Great men hallow a whole people, and lift up all who live in their time.
Greatness
Smith, Sydney
1771-1845 British Writer Clergyman
I never knew a man come to greatness or eminence who lay abed late in the morning.
Greatness
Swift, Jonathan
1667-1745 Anglo-Irish Satirist
Do not despise the bottom rungs in the ascent to greatness.
Greatness
Syrus, Publilius
1st Century BC Roman Writer
In my opinion, most of the great men of the past were only there for the beer --the wealth, prestige and grandeur that went with the power.
Greatness
Taylor, A. J. P.
1906-1990 British Historian
In historic events, the so-called great men are labels giving names to events, and like labels they have but the smallest connection with the event itself. Every act of theirs, which appears to them an act of their own will, is in an historical sense involuntary and is related to the whole course of history and predestined from eternity.
Greatness
Tolstoy, Count Leo
1828-1910 Russian Novelist Philosopher
There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness and truth.
Greatness
Tolstoy, Count Leo
1828-1910 Russian Novelist Philosopher
Being too good is apt to be uninteresting.
Greatness
Truman, Harry S.
1884-1972 Thirty-third President of the USA
Well, I wouldn t say that I was in the great class, but I had a great time while I was trying to be great.
Greatness
Truman, Harry S.
1884-1972 Thirty-third President of the USA
It is not difficult to get away into retirement; and there live upon your own convictions; nor is it difficult to mix with men and follow their convictions; but to enter into the world; and there live firmly and fearlessly according to your own conscience; that is Christian greatness.
Greatness
Unknown, Source
If you would attain greatness, think no little thoughts.
Greatness
Unknown, Source
It is necessary to be slightly under employed if you are to do something significant.
Greatness
Watson, James
1928 American Geneticist
All my life I have always known I was born to greatness.
Greatness
Winfrey, Oprah
1954 American TV Personality Producer Actress Author
A good man, is a good man, whether in this church, or out of it.
Greatness
Young, Brigham
1801-1877 American Mormon Leader
None think the great unhappy, but the great.
Greatness
Young, Edward
1683-1765 British Poet Dramatist