best quotations about
Greatness |
72 quotes | Visits: 3,729 |
Quotations
There is a better chance of seeing a camel pass through the eye of a needle than of seeing a really great man 'discovered' through an election. — Adolf Hitler, 1889-1945, German dictator 16 likes | |
Love of glory can only create a great hero; contempt of glory creates a great man. — Talleyrand, 1754-1838, French statesman & diplomat 14 likes | |
If the average man is made in God's image, then such a man as Beethoven or Aristotle is plainly superior to God. — H.L. Mencken, 1880-1956, American columnist & cultural critic 12 likes | |
The Greeks are interesting and extremely important because they reared such a vast number of great individuals. How was this possible? This question is one which ought to be studied. — Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900, German philosopher 8 likes | |
A really great man is known by three signs: generosity in the design, humanity in the execution, moderation in success. — Otto von Bismarck, 1815-1898, German chancellor 7 likes | |
Taken on the whole, I would believe that Gandhi's views were the most enlightened of all the political men in our time. — Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, German-Jewish physicist 6 likes | |
If I had succeeded, I would have been the greatest man known to history. — Napoleon, 1769-1821, French Emperor 6 likes | |
Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude. — Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860, German philosopher 5 likes | |
Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is always Judas who writes the biography. — Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900, Irish writer 5 likes | |
The President hears a hundred voices telling him that he is the greatest man in the world. He must listen carefully indeed to hear the one voice that tells him his is not. — Harry Truman, 1884-1972, American President [1945-1953] 5 likes | |
The price of greatness is responsibility. — Winston Churchill, 1874-1965, British Prime Minister, Nobel 1953 5 likes | |
It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf. — H.L. Mencken, 1880-1956, American columnist & cultural critic 4 likes | |
The world’s great men have not commonly been great scholars, nor its great scholars great men. — Oliver W. Holmes Sr., 1809-1894, American writer 4 likes | |
Life is too short to be little. Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervor. — Benjamin Disraeli, 1804-1881, British Prime Minister 4 likes | |
A great man is one who leaves others at a loss after he is gone. — Paul Valery, 1871-1945, French poet 4 likes | |
Greatness is one of the sensations of littleness. — George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950, Irish writer, Nobel 1925 3 likes | |
You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. — Zig Ziglar, 1926-2012, American self-help writer 3 likes | |
Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em. — William Shakespeare, 1564-1616, English poet & playwright ‐ Twelfth Night 3 likes | |
Greatness is nothing unless it be lasting. — Napoleon, 1769-1821, French Emperor 3 likes | |
Prometheus is the most eminent saint and martyr in the philosophical calendar. — Karl Marx, 1818-1883, German philosopher 3 likes | |
We cannot help but see Socrates as the turning-point, the vortex of world history. — Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900, German philosopher 3 likes | |
The Superior Man is aware of righteousness, the inferior man is aware of advantage. — Confucius, 551-479 BC, Chinese teacher & philosopher 3 likes | |
The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions. — Confucius, 551-479 BC, Chinese teacher & philosopher 3 likes | |
Nurture your minds with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes. — Benjamin Disraeli, 1804-1881, British Prime Minister 3 likes | |
France cannot be France without greatness. La France ne peut être la France sans la grandeur. — Charles de Gaulle, 1890-1970, French President 3 likes | |
Do not trust people. They are capable of greatness. — Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, 1906-1966, Polish author of maxims 3 likes | |
In order to achieve great things, we must live as though we were never going to die. — Vauvenargues, 1715-1747, French author of maxims 3 likes | |
Chanel, General De Gaulle and Picasso are the three most important figures of our time. — André Malraux, 1901-1976, French writer & statesman 3 likes | |
I like to feel dumb. That’s how I know there’s more in the world than me. — Susan Sontag, 1933-2004, American writer, critic, activist 3 likes | |
The greater man the greater courtesy. — Alfred Tennyson, 1809-1892, English poet 2 likes | |
Good and great are seldom in the same man. — Winston Churchill, 1874-1965, British Prime Minister, Nobel 1953 2 likes | |
If you would be accounted great by your contemporaries, be not too much greater than they. — Ambrose Bierce, 1842–1914, American writer 2 likes | |
What is greatness? I will answer: it is the capacity to live by the three fundamental values of John Galt: reason, purpose, self-esteem. — Ayn Rand, 1905-1982, American writer & philosopher 2 likes | |
Aristotle may be regarded as the cultural barometer of Western history. Whenever his influence dominated the scene, it paved the way for one of history's brilliant eras; whenever it fell, so did mankind. — Ayn Rand, 1905-1982, American writer & philosopher 2 likes | |
Nothing great is done without great men, and they are great because they wanted it. — Charles de Gaulle, 1890-1970, French President 2 likes | |
Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown. — Charles de Gaulle, 1890-1970, French President 2 likes | |
Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion. — Rumi, 1207-1273, Persian mystic & poet 2 likes | |
Our greatness will appear Then most conspicuous, when great things of small, Useful of hurtful, prosperous of adverse, We can create. — John Milton, 1608-1674, English poet 2 likes | |
You thought I was a tide and I was a deluge! — Victor Hugo, 1802-1885, French writer 2 likes | |
The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team. — John Wooden, 1910-2010, American basketball coach 2 likes | |
The path to greatness is along with others. | |
All greatness is unconscious, or it is little and naught. | |
A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men. | |
If you would be accounted great by your contemporaries, be not too much greater than they. | |
I'm not the greatest; I'm the double greatest. Not only do I knock 'em out, I pick the round. | |
I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was. | |
Nobody who takes on anything big and tough can afford to be modest. | |
It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him. | |
Greatness, to be recognized, must often consent to imitate greatness. | |
It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am. | |
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. | |
From time to time there appear on the face of the earth men of rare and consummate excellence, who dazzle us by their virtue, and whose outstanding qualities shed a stupendous light. | |
I have learned the truth of the observation that the more one approaches great men the more one finds that they are men. — Bernard Baruch, 1870-1965, American businessman & statesman | |
There are no heroes without an audience. | |
A really great man has always an idea of something greater than himself. | |
Those people who are always improving never become great. Greatness is an eminence, the ascent to which is steep and lofty, and which a man must seize on at once by natural boldness and vigor, and not by patient, wary steps. | |
Popularity is neither fame nor greatness. | |
No really great man ever thought himself so. | |
No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history. | |
The first virtue of all really great men is that they are sincere. They eradicate hypocrisy from their hearts. | |
The time would fail me if I were to recite all the big names in history whose exploits are perfectly irrational and even shocking to the business mind. | |
Nothing great has great beginnings. — Joseph De Maistre, 1753-1821, Savoyard diplomat & philosopher | |
The great would not think themselves demigods if the little did not worship them. | |
Painting is the visible side of the iceberg of my thinking. | |
If you're going to be a writer you have to be one of the great ones... After all, there are better ways to starve to death. | |
He whom God has touched will always be a being apart: he is, whatever he may do, a stranger among men; he is marked by a sign. | |
Nothing great has happened that is not exaggerated hope. | |
The world is the reflection of the intelligence and the thinking of a few superior people. | |
The greatness of a life can only be estimated by the multitude of its actions. We should not count the years, it is our actions which constitute our life. — Gottfried Leibnitz, 1646-1716, German philosopher & mathematician |
Quotes in Verse
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. — Alfred Tennyson, 1809-1892, English poet 2 likes | |
The great are strongest when they stand alone, A God-given might of being is their force. — Sri Aurobindo, 1872-1950, Indian nationalist, yogi & philosopher |
Ancient Greek
One, but a lion. Είς, αλλά λέων. — Aesop, 620-560 BC, Ancient Greek fabulist 11 likes |