It is always the adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
No greater thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
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.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
The difference between Socrates and Jesus? The great conscious and the immeasurably great unconscious.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
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 don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle… (or) Einstein’s Theory of Relativity … (or) the Second Theory of Thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often born on a street corner or in a restaurant’s revolving door.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
If you want to be important – that’s wonderful. If you want to be great – that’s wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That’s your new definition of greatness – it means that everybody can be great because everybody can serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know the second law of thermodynamics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love…
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
The dullard’s envy of brilliant men is always assuaged by the suspicion that they will come to a bad end.
—Max Beerbohm (1872–1956) British Essayist, Caricaturist, Novelist
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.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
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.
—Unknown
A great man stands on God. A small man on a great man.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The convent, which belongs to the West as it does to the East, to antiquity as it does to the present time, to Buddhism and Muhammadanism as it does to Christianity, is one of the optical devices whereby man gains a glimpse of infinity.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Greatness be nothing unless it be lasting.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
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.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
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.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
It was not reason that besieged Troy; it was not reason that sent forth the Saracen from the desert to conquer the world; that inspired the crusades; that instituted the monastic orders; it was not reason that produced the Jesuits; above all, it was not reason that created the French Revolution. Man is only great when he acts from the passions; never irresistible but when he appeals to the imagination.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
There would be no great men if there were no little ones.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
Some have greatness thrust upon them, but not lately.
—Frank Lane (1896–1981) American Sportsperson, Businessperson
What millions died that Caesar might be great?
—Joseph Campbell (1904–87) American Mythologist, Writer, Lecturer
A great person is one who affects the mind of their generation.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
They’re only truly great who are truly good.
—George Chapman (c.1560–1634) English Poet, Playwright
To be really great in little things, to be truly noble and heroic in the insipid details of everyday life, is a virtue so rare as to be worthy of canonization.
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–96) American Abolitionist, Author
There is nothing wrong with America that the faith, love of freedom, intelligence and energy of her citizens cannot cure.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
We shall never resolve the enigma of the relation between the negative foundations of greatness and that greatness itself.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
All your youth you want to have your greatness taken for granted; when you find it taken for granted, you are unnerved.
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973) Irish Novelist, Short-story Writer
No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Whatever you are, be a good one.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
To have a great man for a friend seems pleasant to those who have never tried it; those who have, fear it.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
A great thing can only be done by a great person; and they do it without effort.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
Being too good is apt to be uninteresting.
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
The superiority of some men is merely local. They are great because their associates are little.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
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.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
To a crisis of the spirit, we need an answer of the spirit.
To find that answer, we need only look within ourselves.
When we listen to the better angels of our nature, we find that they celebrate the simple things, the basic things—such as goodness, decency, love, kindness.
Greatness comes in simple trappings.
—Richard Nixon (1913–94) American Head of State, Lawyer
A position of eminence makes a great person greater and a small person less.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
The greatest thing a man can do in this world is to make the most possible out of the stuff that has been given him. This is success, and there is no other.
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
No man ever yet became great by imitation.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Greatness does not approach him who is forever looking down.
—The Hitopadesha Indian Collection of Fables
You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
To achieve greatness one should live as if they will never die.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
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.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
The price of greatness is responsibility.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
The great must submit to the dominion of prudence and virtue, or none will long submit to the dominion of the great.—This is a feudal tenure which they cannot alter.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
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.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Great woman belong to history and to self sacrifice.
—Leigh Hunt (1784–1859) British Poet, Essayist, Journalist
He is not great who is not greatly good.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
A great man’s greatest good luck is to die at the right time.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author