Greatness quotes
1.9K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside greatness — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"Greatness by nature includes a power, but not a will to power. ... The great man, whether we comprehend him in the most intense activity of his work or in the restful equipoise of his forces , is powerful, involuntarily and composedly powerful, but he is not avid for power. What he is avid for is the realization of what he has in mind , the incarnation of the spirit ."
"Ajax the great Himself a host."
"Everyone has the power for greatness, not for fame but greatness, because greatness is determined by service."
"Each part of a great painting should in itself be a great painting."
"I believe greatness is an evolutionary process that changes and evolves era to era."
"I just feel that my competitive drive is far greater than anyone else that I've met, and I think that I thrive on that."
"You've got to keep your body active, even if that means just turning on some music and dancing for an hour. ...That's how you;ll prepare your bodies and your minds for greatness."
"Wisdom is knowing when you can't be wise."
"Sighing that Nature formed but one such man, and broke the die."
".. we shall not be properly educated ourselves, nor will the guardians whom we are training, until we can recognise the qualities of discipline, courage, generosity, greatness of mind, and others akin to them, as well as their opposites in all their manifestations."
"How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, how complicate, how wonderful is man! Distinguished link in being's endless chain! Midway from nothing to the Deity! Dim miniature of greatness absolute! An heir of glory! A frail child of dust! Helpless immortal! Insect infinite! A worm! A God!"
"I imagine, like all his predecessors, Barak Obama would like to achieve greatness in bringing peace in the Middle East. I hope it will not be at the expense of Israel."
"I firmly believe there are books whose greatness actually enable you to live."
"To say that man is a compound of strength and weakness, light and darkness, smallness and greatness, is not to indict him, it is to define him."
"The difficulties of life do not keep you from greatness. They show you to its door."
"Dare to go forward. Courage is the mark of greatness in leadership"
"Eugenics was central to the entire Nazi enterprise, joined with romantic nativist and racist myths of the pure-bred Nordic. The emphasis on 'blood' called for a purifying of the nation's gene pool, so that Germans could regain the nobility and greatness of their genetically pure forebears."
"The essence of greatness is the ability to choose personal fulfillment in circumstances where others choose madness."
"Great men have been among us; hands that penn'd And tongues that utter'd wisdom--better none"
"We cannot look upon our lives as dreams of a dreamer who has no awakening in all time. We have a personality to which matter and force are unmeaning unless related to something infinitely personal, whose nature we have discovered, in some measure, in human love, in the greatness of the good, in the martyrdom of heroic souls, in the ineffable beauty of nature, which can never be a mere physical fact nor anything but an expression of personality."
