best quotations about
Greatness |
| 76 quotes | Visits: 3,878 |
Quotations
 | 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 |
 | Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is always Judas who writes the biography. — Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900, Irish writer 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 |
 | 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 |
 | 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 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 |
 | Only people of strong passion are capable of rising to greatness. — Comte de Mirabeau, 1749-1791, main figure of the French Revolution 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. |
 | There would be no great men if there were no little ones. |
 | 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 |
 | It is a great art to be superior to others without letting them know it. |
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 |
 | The lion from a single claw. Εξ όνυχος τον λέοντα. — Alcaeus of Mytilene, 7th-6th cent. BC, Ancient Greek lyric poet (One can detect ability or judge someone from a small detail) 3 likes |
