Greatness Quotes

Most popular greatness quotes

Greatness is always built on this foundation: the ability to appear, speak and act, as the most common man. - Shams-ud-din Muhammed Hafiz quote.
Greatness is always built on this foundation: the ability to appear, speak and act, as the most common man.

leadership

It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them. - Mark Twain quote.
It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them.

awards

The nobler a man, the harder it is for him to suspect inferiority in others. - Cicero quote.
The nobler a man, the harder it is for him to suspect inferiority in others.
The first test of a truly great man is his humility. - John Ruskin quote.
The first test of a truly great man is his humility.
The price of greatness is responsibility. - Winston Churchill quote.
The price of greatness is responsibility.

responsibility

We can do not great things; only small things with great love. - Mahatma Gandhi quote.
We can do not great things; only small things with great love.

love

No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history. - William Hazlitt quote.
No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history.
To be great is to be misunderstood. - Ralph Waldo Emerson quote.
To be great is to be misunderstood.

misunderstanding

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity. - Ralph Waldo Emerson quote.
No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

opportunity

A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions. - Confucius quote.
A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.
A truly great man never puts away the simplicity of a child. - Confucius quote.
A truly great man never puts away the simplicity of a child.
I'm the most recognized and loved man that ever lived because  there weren't no satellites when Jesus and Moses were around, so people far away in the villages didn't know about them. - Muhammad Ali quote.
I'm the most recognized and loved man that ever lived because  there weren't no satellites when Jesus and Moses were around, so people far away in the villages didn't know about them.

Jesus

It's hard to be humble, when you're as great as I am. - Muhammad Ali quote.
It's hard to be humble, when you're as great as I am.

humility

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children. - Kahlil Gibran quote.
Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

how to live life wisdom philosophy

The great man is he who does not lose his child-heart. - Mencius quote.
The great man is he who does not lose his child-heart.

children

No great scoundrel is ever uninteresting.
The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it. - François de La Rochefoucauld quote.
The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it.

morals

The superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability. - Confucius quote.
The superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability.

ability

To achieve great things we must live as though we were never going to die. - Marquis de Vauvenargues quote.
To achieve great things we must live as though we were never going to die.

accomplishment

To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you're not, pretend you are. - Muhammad Ali quote.
To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you're not, pretend you are.
A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men. - Thomas Carlyle quote.
A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men.
A certain excessiveness seems a necessary element in all greatness.
The greater the man, the greater the crime. - Thomas Fuller quote.
The greater the man, the greater the crime.
Greatness is a zigzag streak of lightning in the brain. - H. H. Asquith quote.
Greatness is a zigzag streak of lightning in the brain.
Few great men could pass personnel. - Paul Goodman quote.
Few great men could pass personnel.
Nothing grows well in the shade of a big tree. - Constantin Brancusi quote.
Nothing grows well in the shade of a big tree.
To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult. - Friedrich Nietzsche quote.
To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult.
It is not the strength, but the duration, of great sentiments that makes great men.
Men of genius do not excel in any profession because they labour in it, but they labour in it because they excel.
It is the gods ' custom to bring low all things of surpassing greatness. - Herodotus quote.
It is the gods ' custom to bring low all things of surpassing greatness.
The superior man is distressed by his want of ability. - Confucius quote.
The superior man is distressed by his want of ability.

ability

Greatness is a spiritual condition worthy to excite love, interest, and admiration; and the outward proof of possessing greatness is that we excite love, interest and admiration. - Matthew Arnold quote.
Greatness is a spiritual condition worthy to excite love, interest, and admiration; and the outward proof of possessing greatness is that we excite love, interest and admiration.
There is no such thing as a little country. The greatness of a people is no more determined by their numbers than the greatness of a man is by his height. - Victor Hugo quote.
There is no such thing as a little country. The greatness of a people is no more determined by their numbers than the greatness of a man is by his height.
We are both great men, but I have succeeded better in keeping it a profound secret than he has. - Bill Nye quote.
We are both great men, but I have succeeded better in keeping it a profound secret than he has.
Great men are meteors designed to burn so that earth may be lighted.
Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like drinking it. - Winston Churchill quote.
Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like drinking it.
One does not become great by claiming greatness.
— African proverb

African proverbs proverbs

The way to grow grand
is not: to demand
In life's every field
you are what you yield.
The truth is, a great mind must be androgynous. - Samuel Coleridge quote.
The truth is, a great mind must be androgynous.

androgyny mind

Is it not true that the ability to apologize is one of the elements of true greatness?  It is the small-souled man who will not stoop to apologize.

apologies

It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific nation, that great characters are formed.  The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. - Abigail Adams quote.
It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific nation, that great characters are formed.  The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties.

difficulties character

He is truly great that is great in charity. He is truly great that is little in himself, and maketh no account of any height of honor. - Thomas à Kempis quote.
He is truly great that is great in charity. He is truly great that is little in himself, and maketh no account of any height of honor.

charity

An article of the democratic faith is that greatness lies in each person. - Bill Bradley quote.
An article of the democratic faith is that greatness lies in each person.

democracy

Depend upon it, of all vices, drinking is the most incompatible with greatness. - Sir Walter Scott quote.
Depend upon it, of all vices, drinking is the most incompatible with greatness.

drinking vice

Failure is the true test of greatness. - Herman Melville quote.
Failure is the true test of greatness.

failure

Failure is another stepping-stone to greatness. - Oprah Winfrey quote.
Failure is another stepping-stone to greatness.

failure

Greatness has nothing to do with goodness—or very little. - Frank Yerby quote.
Greatness has nothing to do with goodness—or very little.

Goodness

There are big men, men of intellect, intellectual men, men of talent and men of action; but the great man is difficult to find, and it needs—apart from discernment—a certain greatness to find him. - Margot Asquith quote.
There are big men, men of intellect, intellectual men, men of talent and men of action; but the great man is difficult to find, and it needs—apart from discernment—a certain greatness to find him.
All rising to great place is by a winding stair. - Francis Bacon quote.
All rising to great place is by a winding stair.
Men in great places are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business. - Francis Bacon quote.
Men in great places are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business.
Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right using of strength; and strength is not used rightly when it serves only to carry a man above his fellows for his own solitary glory.  He is greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his own.
All your youth, you want to have your greatness taken for granted; when you find it taken for granted, you are unnerved. - Elizabeth Bowen quote.
All your youth, you want to have your greatness taken for granted; when you find it taken for granted, you are unnerved.
The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there. - Sir John Buchan quote.
The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.

leadership

It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact. - Edmund Burke quote.
It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.
What millions died that Caesar might be great!
No great man lives in vain.  The history of the world is but the biography of great men. - Thomas Carlyle quote.
No great man lives in vain.  The history of the world is but the biography of great men.
I distrust Great Men.  They produce a desert of uniformity around them and often a pool of blood too, and I always feel a little man's pleasure when they come a cropper. - G. K. Chesterton quote.
I distrust Great Men.  They produce a desert of uniformity around them and often a pool of blood too, and I always feel a little man's pleasure when they come a cropper.
Greatness is always envied—it is only mediocrity that can boast of a host of friends. - Marie Corelli quote.
Greatness is always envied—it is only mediocrity that can boast of a host of friends.

mediocrity

Greatness is a road that leads toward something unknown. - General Charles DeGaulle quote.
Greatness is a road that leads toward something unknown.
Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein quote.
Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds.

mediocrity

There is only one road to true human greatness: the road through suffering. - Albert Einstein quote.
There is only one road to true human greatness: the road through suffering.

suffering

A great man is always willing to be little. - Ralph Waldo Emerson quote.
A great man is always willing to be little.
The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough. - Ralph Waldo Emerson quote.
The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough.

virtue

Trust men, and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.

trust

Great men, great nations have not been boasters and buffoons, but perceivers of the terror of life, and have manned themselves to face it. - Ralph Waldo Emerson quote.
Great men, great nations have not been boasters and buffoons, but perceivers of the terror of life, and have manned themselves to face it.
Here in Texas maybe we've got into the habit of confusing bigness with greatness. - Edna Ferber quote.
Here in Texas maybe we've got into the habit of confusing bigness with greatness.
Mountains appear more lofty the nearer they are approached; but great men, to retain their altitude, must only be viewed from a distance. - Lady Blessington quote.
Mountains appear more lofty the nearer they are approached; but great men, to retain their altitude, must only be viewed from a distance.
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 Bruyère quote.
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.
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
If a man has any greatness in him, it comes to light, not in one flamboyant hour, but in the ledger of his daily work. - Beryl Markham quote.
If a man has any greatness in him, it comes to light, not in one flamboyant hour, but in the ledger of his daily work.
Since we cannot attain to greatness, let us revenge ourselves by railing against it. - Michel de Montaigne quote.
Since we cannot attain to greatness, let us revenge ourselves by railing against it.
Fortunately there is excess in greatness: it can lose more than mediocrity possesses, and still be great.

mediocrity

It is the privilege of greatness to confer intense happiness with insignificant gifts. - Friedrich Nietzsche quote.
It is the privilege of greatness to confer intense happiness with insignificant gifts.
None are fit judges of greatness but those who are capable of it. - Jane Porter quote.
None are fit judges of greatness but those who are capable of it.
Jane Porter Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney, With Remarks by Miss Porter
Great men can't be ruled. - Ayn Rand quote.
Great men can't be ruled.
Great souls endure in silence. - Friedrich Schiller quote.
Great souls endure in silence.

silence

Greatness is to take the common things of life, and walk truly among them. - Olive Schreiner quote.
Greatness is to take the common things of life, and walk truly among them.
Be not afraid of greatness.  Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.
Great men hallow a whole people, and lift up all who live in their time. - Sydney Smith quote.
Great men hallow a whole people, and lift up all who live in their time.
Sydney Smith A Memoir of The Reverend Sydney Smith: by His Daughter
Some are destroyed by defeat, and some made small and mean by victory.  Greatness lives in one who triumphs equally over defeat and victory. - John Steinbeck quote.
Some are destroyed by defeat, and some made small and mean by victory.  Greatness lives in one who triumphs equally over defeat and victory.

victory & defeat

But if to be great means to do great things in the teeth of great obstacles, then none can refuse him a place in the temple of the Immortals.

obstacles

We have, I fear, confused power with greatness. - Stewart Udall quote.
We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.

power

Satisfaction may be the goal of the average person, but it is the enemy of greatness.

satisfaction

A great man is a torch in the darkness, a beacon in superstition's night, an inspiration and a prophecy. - Robert Ingersoll quote.
A great man is a torch in the darkness, a beacon in superstition's night, an inspiration and a prophecy.
If my resolution to be a great man was half so strong as it is to despise the shame of being a little one... - William Cowper quote.
If my resolution to be a great man was half so strong as it is to despise the shame of being a little one...
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 quote.
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.

genius

Greatness lies, not in being strong, but in the right using of strength; and strength is not used rightly when it serves only to carry a man above his fellows for his own solitary glory. He is the greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his own.

glory Strength

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honour, duty, mercy, hope. - Winston Churchill quote.
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honour, duty, mercy, hope.
Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary. - Blaise Pascal quote.
Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.
Great causes and little men go ill together. - Jawaharlal Nehru quote.
Great causes and little men go ill together.
Detestation of the high is the involuntary homage of the low. - Charles Dickens quote.
Detestation of the high is the involuntary homage of the low.
The nobler sort of man emphasizes the good qualities in others, and does not accentuate the bad. The inferior does. - Confucius quote.
The nobler sort of man emphasizes the good qualities in others, and does not accentuate the bad. The inferior does.