"A man is not as big as his belief in himself; he is as big as the number of persons who believe in him."
Greatness quotes
Greatness
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Greatness quotes (page 35 of 94)
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"The Constitution was not made to fit us like a straitjacket. In its elasticity lies its chief greatness."
"Should I, after tea and cakes and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed, Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter, I am no prophet--and here's no great matter; I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, And in short, I was afraid."
"The greatness of literature cannot be determined solely by literary standards though we must remember that whether it is literature or not can be determined only by literary standards."
"Greatness is in not what you do but how you are an instrument in the hands of God."
"My greatness does not extend to this shelf."
"He is greatest who is most often in men's good thoughts."
"Men seek to be great; they would have offices, wealth, power, and fame. They think that to be great is to possess one side of nature,--the sweet, without the other side,--the bitter."
"A great man scarcely knows how he dines, how he dresses; but without railing or precision, his living is natural and poetic."
"I count him a great man who inhabits a higher sphere of thought, into which other men rise with labor and difficulty; he has but to open his eyes to see things in a true light, and in large relations; whilst they must make painful corrections, and keep a vigilant eye on many sources of error."
"The affirmative class monopolize the homage of mankind. They originate and execute all the great feats. What a force was coiled upin the skull of Napoleon!"
"A man comes to measure his greatness by the regrets, envies and hatreds of his competitors."
"In private places, among sordid objects, an act of truth or heroism seems at once to draw to itself the sky as its temple, the sun as its cradle. Nature stretches out her arms to embrace man, only let his thoughts be of equal greatness."
"Greatness once and forever has down with opinion."
"Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of the prophets. He saw with an open eye the mystery of the soul. . Alone in all history he estimated the greatness of man."
"The great man is not convulsible or tormentable; events pass over him without much impression."
"The world is young: the former great men call to us affectionately. We too must write Bibles, to unite again the heavens and the earthly world."
"The business of the biographer is often to pass slightly over those performances and incidents which produce vulgar greatness, to lead the thoughts into domestic privacies, and display the minute details of daily life, were exterior appendages are cast aside, and men excel each other only by prudence and virtue."
"It is to be steadily inculcated, that virtue is the highest proof of understanding, and the only solid basis of greatness."
"That eminence of learning is not to be gained without labour, at least equal to that which any other kind of greatness can require, will be allowed by those who wish to elevate the character of a scholar; since they cannot but know that every human acquisition is valuable in proportion to the difficulty of its attainment."