Quotes About Greatness

The lonely road to greatness is better than the crowded road to mediocrity.

The weak hold onto grudges; the great hold onto love.

Think like the great, speak like the great, act like the great, and you will become like the great.

Lincoln didn't do great work because he solved the problem of his melancholy; the problem of his melancholy was all the more fuel for the fire of his great work.

But he that is the greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abused and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

Nations are not truly great solely because the individuals composing them are numerous, free, and active; but they are great when these numbers, this freedom, and this activity are employed in the service of an ideal higher than that of an ordinary man taken by himself.

The seeds of god-like power are in us still; Gods are we, bards, saints, heroes, if we will!

And they see, for a moment, Stretching out, like the desert In its weary, unprofitable length, Their faded ignoble lives. While the locks are yet brown on thy head, While the soul still looks through thine eyes, While the heart still pours The mantling blood to thy cheek, Sink, O Youth, in thy soul! Yearn to the greatness of Nature! Rally the good in the depths of thyself.

He thought himself a mighty prince, but before the Lord (that is, in God's account) he was but a mighty hunter. Note, Great conquerors are but great hunters. Alexander and Caesar would not make such a figure in scripture-history as they do in common history;

Over twenty men died during the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, Dr Lynch. Does anyone regret that? No, all anyone sees is a marvel of its time, a great achievement in human ingenuity. So it will be here. This place will be beyond great. It will be the envy of the entire world.

The tone is not the writer's voice, but the intimacy of the silence he imposes upon the word. This implies that the silence is still his—what remains of him in the discretion that sets him aside. The tone makes great writers, but perhaps the work is indifferent to what makes them great.

Men are weak. They accomplish the worst only by remaining unaware of it until they grow accustomed to it and find themselves justified by the "greatness" of rigorous discipline and the orders of an irresistible leader.

History's tragedies reveal great men: but those tragedies are provoked by the mediocre.

We should tell ourselves, once and for all, that it is the first duty of the soul to become as happy, complete, independent, and great as lies in its power. Herein is no egoism, or pride. To become effectually generous and sincerely humble there must be within us a confident, tranquil, and clear comprehension of all that we owe to ourselves.

Every new star that is found in the sky will lend of its rays to the passions, and thoughts, and the courage, of man. Whatever of beauty we see in all that surrounds us, within us already is beautiful; whatever we find in ourselves that is great and adorable, that do we find too in others.

Our lives must be spent seeking our God, for God hides; but His artifices, once they be known, seem so simple and smiling! From that moment, the merest nothing reveals His presence, and the greatness of our life depends on so little.

since the days of the great martyrs, that woman was ready with the same gift of self, the same patience, the same sacrifices, the same greatness of soul and was about—less perhaps in blood than in tears, for it is always on her that sorrow ends by falling—to prove herself the rival and the peer of man.

Perhaps it is essential to men to attain greatness in their works only when they do not look for it too hard.

We, the atom and I, have been on friendly terms, until recently. I saw in it the key to the deepest secrets of Nature, and it revealed to me the greatness of creation and the Creator.

a nation of superior, unfriendly, discourteous people, set in the old ways of inefficiency, clinging to old dreams of a greatness which we cannot perpetuate…We deceive ourselves if we think the soil is clean. The seeds of distrust and dislike lie dormant in it.

How marvelous is Man! How proud the word rings—Man!

It is better to deny God, than to defy God. Sometimes our weakness is considered strength, and we take delight in borrowed greatness. To profess to be a lover of God and then to be dishonest to God, to the world and to himself, is unparalleled hypocrisy. Difficulties give us the opportunity to prove our greatness by overcoming them.

A man's greatness is neither determined by having great dreams nor by his determination to realize them; but by his contribution - however small may be - to the progression of the humanity, without forgetting other creatures as well!

Bible says the tree is known by his fruit. We can also say that the great man is known by his undreamed dreams!