Quote: A position of eminence makes a great person greater and a small person less. Author: Jean De La Bruyere 1645-1696, French Writer
Quote: Neither wealth or greatness render us happy. Author: Jean De La Fontaine 1621-1695, French Poet
Quote: To achieve greatness one should live as if they will never die. Author: Francois De La Rochefoucauld 1613-1680, French Classical Writer
Quote: Great men always pay deference to greater. Author: Walter Savage Landor 1775-1864, British Poet, Essayist
Quote: I want to be great, something special. Author: Sugar Ray Leonard 1956-, American Boxer
Quote: 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. Author: Georg C. Lichtenberg 1742-1799, German Physicist, Satirist
Quote: 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. Author: Gerald F. Lieberman American Writer
Quote: Whatever you are, be a good one. Author: Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865, Sixteenth President of the USA
Quote: In our society those who are in reality superior in intelligence can be accepted by their fellows only if they pretend they are not. Author: Marya Mannes 1904-1990, American Writer
Quote: 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. Author: George Mcgovern 1922-, American Democratic Politician
Quote: 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. Author: Henry Miller 1891-1980, American Author
Quote: It is always the adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires. Author: Charles De Montesquieu 1689-1755, French Jurist, Political Philosopher
Quote: Let us never forget that the greatest man is never more than an animal disguised as a god. Author: Francis Picabia 1878-1953, French Painter, Poet
Quote: 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. Author: Plato BC 427?-347?, Greek Philosopher
Quote: Nobody's ever the greatest anything. Author: Maralyn Polak
Quote: The first step toward greatness is to be honest. Author: Proverb
Quote: The greatest men of a nation are those it puts to death. Author: Ernest Renan 1823-1892, French Writer, Critic, Scholar
Quote: Greatness, in order to gain recognition, must all too often consent to ape greatness. Author: Jean Rostand 1894-1977, French Biologist, Writer
Quote: 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. Author: Jean Jacques Rousseau 1712-1778, Swiss Political Philosopher, Educationist, Essayist
Quote: A great thing can only be done by a great person; and they do it without effort. Author: John Ruskin 1819-1900, British Critic, Social Theorist
Quote: Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude. Author: Arthur Schopenhauer 1788-1860, German Philosopher
Quote: It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god. Author: Seneca 4 B.C. – 65 A.D., Spanish-born Roman Statesman, philosopher
Quote: Be not afraid of greatness; some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them. Author: William Shakespeare 1564-1616, British Poet, Playwright, Actor
Quote: He is not great who is not greatly good. Author: William Shakespeare 1564-1616, British Poet, Playwright, Actor
Quote: 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. Author: William Shakespeare 1564-1616, British Poet, Playwright, Actor
Quote: Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them. [Twelfth Night] Author: William Shakespeare 1564-1616, British Poet, Playwright, Actor
Quote: Th abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power. Author: William Shakespeare 1564-1616, British Poet, Playwright, Actor
Quote: Great men hallow a whole people, and lift up all who live in their time. Author: Sydney Smith 1771-1845, British Writer, Clergyman
Quote: I never knew a man come to greatness or eminence who lay abed late in the morning. Author: Jonathan Swift 1667-1745, Anglo-Irish Satirist
Quote: Do not despise the bottom rungs in the ascent to greatness. Author: Publilius Syrus 1st Century BC, Roman Writer
Quote: 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. Author: A. J. P. Taylor 1906-1990, British Historian
Quote: 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. Author: Count Leo Tolstoy 1828-1910, Russian Novelist, Philosopher
Quote: There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness and truth. Author: Count Leo Tolstoy 1828-1910, Russian Novelist, Philosopher
Quote: Being too good is apt to be uninteresting. Author: Harry S. Truman 1884-1972, Thirty-third President of the USA
Quote: 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. Author: Harry S. Truman 1884-1972, Thirty-third President of the USA
Quote: If you would attain greatness, think no little thoughts. Author: Source Unknown
Quote: 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. Author: Source Unknown
Quote: You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration. Author: James Allen 1864-1912, British-born American Essayist, Author of ''As a Man Thinketh''
Quote: 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. Author: Henri Frederic Amiel 1821-1881, Swiss Philosopher, Poet, Critic
Quote: Greatness is a spiritual condition. Author: Matthew Arnold 1822-1888, British Poet, Critic
Quote: 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. Author: Margot Asquith 1864-1945, British Socialite
Quote: We shall never resolve the enigma of the relation between the negative foundations of greatness and that greatness itself. Author: Jean Baudrillard French Postmodern Philosopher, Writer
Quote: Because you are a great lord, you believe yourself to be a great genius. You took the trouble to be born, but no more. Author: Pierre De Beaumarchais 1732-1799, French Dramatist
Quote: The dullard's envy of brilliant men is always assuaged by the suspicion that they will come to a bad end. Author: Sir Max Beerbohm 1872-1956, British Actor
Quote: Great men are not always wise. Author: Bible Sacred Scriptures of Christians and Judaism
Quote: Great people are meteors designed to burn so that the earth may be lighted. Author: Napoleon Bonaparte 1769-1821, French General, Emperor
Quote: Greatness be nothing unless it be lasting. Author: Napoleon Bonaparte 1769-1821, French General, Emperor
Quote: The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need. Author: Napoleon Bonaparte 1769-1821, French General, Emperor
Quote: The greatness of a man's power is the measure of his surrender. Author: William Booth 1829-1912, British Religious Leader, Salvation Army Founder
Quote: All your youth you want to have your greatness taken for granted; when you find it taken for granted, you are unnerved. Author: Elizabeth Bowen 1899-1973, Anglo-Irish Novelist
Quote: 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. Author: Phillips Brooks 1835-1893, American Minister, Poet
Quote: 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. Author: Jean De La BruyFre 1645-1696, French Classical Writer
Quote: Great men are the guideposts and landmarks in the state. Author: Edmund Burke 1729-1797, British Political Writer, Statesman
Quote: The great must submit to the dominion of prudence and of virtue, or none will long submit to the dominion of the great. Author: Edmund Burke 1729-1797, British Political Writer, Statesman
Quote: Sighing that Nature formed but one such man, and broke the die. Author: Lord Byron 1788-1824, British Poet
Quote: What millions died that Caesar might be great? Author: Joseph Campell
Quote: All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Author: Albert Camus 1913-1960, French Existential Writer
Quote: No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men. Author: Thomas Carlyle 1795-1881, Scottish Philosopher, Author
Quote: The difference between Socrates and Jesus? The great conscious and the immeasurably great unconscious. Author: Thomas Carlyle 1795-1881, Scottish Philosopher, Author
Quote: All great men are gifted with intuition. They know without reasoning or analysis, what they need to know. Author: Alexis Carrel 1873-1944, French Biologist
Quote: I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great. Author: Ray Charles 1930-, American Musician, Singer, Songwriter
Quote: 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. Author: Lord Chesterfield 1694-1773, British Statesman, Author
Quote: 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. Author: Gilbert K. Chesterton 1874-1936, British Author
Quote: Great and good are seldom the same man. Author: Winston Churchill 1874-1965, British Statesman, Prime Minister
Quote: The price of greatness is responsibility. Author: Winston Churchill 1874-1965, British Statesman, Prime Minister
Quote: Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends. Author: Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772-1834, British Poet, Critic, Philosopher
Quote: Some have greatness thrust upon them, but not lately. Author: Frank Dane
Quote: He's the greatest man who ever came out of Plymouth, Vermont. [On Calvin Coolidge] Author: Clarence Darrow 1857-1938, American Lawyer
Quote: It is a melancholy truth that even great men have their poor relations. Author: Charles Dickens 1812-1870, British Novelist
Quote: A great person is one who affects the mind of their generation. Author: Benjamin Disraeli 1804-1881, British Statesman, Prime Minister
Quote: Man is only truly great when he acts from his passions. Author: Benjamin Disraeli 1804-1881, British Statesman, Prime Minister
Quote: 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. Author: John Donne 1572-1632, British Metaphysical Poet
Quote: 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. Author: Adam Duritz 1965-, American Musician, Singer, Songwriter
Quote: 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? Author: Bob Dylan 1941-, American Musician, Singer, Songwriter
Quote: A great man stands on God. A small man on a great man. Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist
Quote: Great people are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force, that thoughts rule the world. Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist
Quote: He is great who is what he is from nature, and who never reminds us of others. Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist
Quote: No great man ever complains of want of opportunity. Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist
Quote: Not he is great who can alter matter, but he who can alter my state of mind. Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist
Quote: The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough. Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist
Quote: The measure of a master is his success in bringing all men around to his opinion twenty years later. Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist
Quote: The search after the great men is the dream of youth, and the most serious occupation of manhood. Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist
Quote: To be great is to be misunderstood. Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist
Quote: No great thing is created suddenly. Author: Epictetus 50-120, Stoic Philosopher
Quote: 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. Author: Edward M. Forster 1879-1970, British Novelist, Essayist
Quote: There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous. Author: Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790, American Scientist, Publisher, Diplomat
Quote: The essence of greatness is neglect of the self. Author: James A. Froude 1818-1894, British Historian
Quote: It's not what you take but what you leave behind that defines greatness. Author: Edward Gardner American Businessman, Founder of Soft Sheen Products
Quote: 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. Author: Kahlil Gibran 1883-1931, Lebanese Poet, Novelist
Quote: There are no great men, only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet. Author: William F. Halsey American Admiral
Quote: No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history. Author: William Hazlitt 1778-1830, British Essayist
Quote: There would be no great men if there were no little ones. Author: George Herbert 1593-1632, British Metaphysical Poet
Quote: Great men are rarely isolated mountain-peaks; they are the summits of ranges. Author: Thomas Wentworth Higginson 1823-1911, American Clergyman, Writer
Quote: Greatness does not approach him who is forever looking down. Author: Hitopadesa 600?-1100? AD, Sanskrit Fable From Panchatantra
Quote: A great man's greatest good luck is to die at the right time. Author: Eric Hoffer 1902-1983, American Author, Philosopher
Quote: To have a great man for a friend seems pleasant to those who have never tried it; those who have, fear it. Author: Horace BC 65-8, Italian Poet
Quote: After a fellow gets famous it does not take long for someone to bob up that used to sit next to him in school. Author: Kin Hubbard 1868-1930, American Humorist, Journalist
Quote: 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. Author: Victor Hugo 1802-1885, French Poet, Dramatist, Novelist
Quote: Great woman belong to history and to self sacrifice. Author: Leigh Hunt 1784-1859, British Poet, Essayist
Quote: He was dull in a new way, and that made many think him great. Author: Samuel Johnson 1709-1784, British Author
Quote: No one ever became great by imitation. Author: Samuel Johnson 1709-1784, British Author
Quote: The superiority of some men is merely local. They are great because their associates are little. Author: Samuel Johnson 1709-1784, British Author
Quote: It is necessary to be slightly under employed if you are to do something significant. Author: James Watson 1928-, American Geneticist
Quote: All my life I have always known I was born to greatness. Author: Oprah Winfrey 1954-, American TV Personality, Producer, Actress, Author
Quote: A good man, is a good man, whether in this church, or out of it. Author: Brigham Young 1801-1877, American Mormon Leader
Quote: None think the great unhappy, but the great. Author: Edward Young 1683-1765, British Poet, Dramatist