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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"It is not only by one's impulses that one achieves greatness, but also by patiently filing away the steel wall that separates what one feels from what one is capable of doing."
"It is due to neither impotence nor ignorance on God’s part that evils occur in the world, but it is owing to the order of his wisdom and to the greatness of his goodness, whence come the many and divers grades of goodness in things, many of which would be lacking were he to allow no evil to exist. Thus there would be no good of patience without the evil of persecution, nor the good of the preservation of its life in a lion, without the evil of the destruction of the animals on which it lives."
"If God is treated as God during suffering, then suffering can reveal and present him in all his greatness."
"It is strange. I see all the privileges and greatness of the future. It already looks grand, beautiful. Tell them I went lovingly, trustfully, peacefully."
"Greatness stands upon a precipice, and if prosperity carries a man never so little beyond his poise, it overbears and dashes him to pieces."
"If you want the secondary greatness of recognized talent, focus first on primary greatness of character."
"What this game's really about is using each day as a platform to express your greatness."
"There's no way to convince people of your greatness. Whatever it is that you want to be, you have to know it inside and knife-fight your way to your dream."
"You could be great, you know, it’s all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that."
"The sage does not attempt anything very big, and thus achieves greatness."
"Standing on "tip toe", one stands not firmly. Straining in stride, one cannot walk far. Flaunting of deeds, one is unfavorably noticed. Being self-righteous, one is not respected. Boasting of self, one's merit is unrecognized. Glorifying of self, one loses the opportunity for greatness. From the viewpoint of Tao These represent imperfect Te, Valued as are filth or disease."
"Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom. Of course the task will not be easy. But not to do this would be a crime against humanity, against which I ask all humanity now to rise up."
"Every civilization depends on the quality of the individuals it produces. If you over-organize humans, over-legalize them, suppress their urge to greatness-they cannot work and their civilization collapses."
"It is a terrific thing to get a building built that has the qualities of greatness in it."
"A great man need not be virtuous, nor his opinions right, but he must have a firm mind, a distinctive luminous character."
"But not to perish from internal distress and doubt when one inflicts great suffering and hears the cry of suffering : that is great, that belongs to greatness."
"Out of the public schools comes the greatness of the nation."
"The two maxims of any great man at court are, always to keep his countenance, and never to keep his word."
"The choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and nonexistence."
"Many of the ugly pages of American history have been obscured and forgotten....America owes a debt of justice which it has only begun to pay. If it loses the will to finish or slackens in its determination, history will recall its crimes and the country that would be great will lack the most indispensable element of greatness-justice."
