Quotes About Greatness

The collision of a great man with a great idea strikes fire in dry flax.

The greatness of man cannot be seen in the hours of comfort and convenience, but rather in moments of conflict/adversity

A great man represents a great ganglion in the nerves of society, or to vary the figure, a strategic point in the campaign of history, and part of his greatness consists in his being there.

A small amount of power corrupts a small man absolutely. A little knowledge is dangerous to a little man. To a great man only great knowledge is dangerous.

Really great things, when discussed by little men, can usually make such men grow big.

'Tis better to be known as a good man than a great one, for greatness is an assessment of mortals; goodness a gift of God.

The older I grow, the more I see behind the idea of the Hindus that man is the greatest of all beings.

He was not the greatest of men but he was the greatest of kings.

A really great man has always an idea of something greater than himself.

I consider how little man is, yet, in his own mind, how great. He is lord and master of all things, yet scarce can command anything.

It is not great talents or great learning or great preachers that God needs, but men great in holiness, great in faith, great in love, great in fidelity, great for God.

To be a great man it is necessary to turn to account all opportunities.

The longer you live and the more you learn, the more clearly you will feel the difference between the few men who are truly great and the mere virtuosi.

What? A great man? I only ever see the ape of his own ideal.

Altogether it will be found that a quiet life is characteristic of great men, and that their pleasures have not been of the sort that would look exciting to the outward eye.

St. Thomas is really a great man quite apart from his saintliness.

Great men, like comets, are eccentric in their courses, and formed to do extensive good by modes unintelligible to vulgar minds.

I have played some of the great men in history and I believe in the great man who does heroic deeds, even in these egalitarian times.

The consolation of reading biography: Most great men have led lives even more miserable than our own.

Perhaps Samuel Johnson was a great man; he was certainly a drumbling one.

The Lives of Great Men are more oft' at variance with their profess'd Phillosophies than consistent with 'em.

The fame of great men ought to be judged always by their big, fancy names.

Great men should not have great faults.

Moderation is represented as a virtue in order to restrain the ambition of great men, and to console those of a meaner condition in their lesser merit and fortune.