Quotes about Greatness

The characteristic of genuine heroism is its persistency. All men have wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity. But when you have resolved to be great, abide by yourself, and do not try to reconcile yourself with the world. The heroic cannot be common, nor the common heroic.

Nothing ever great was achieved without enthusiasm.

It is easy in the world to live after the worlds opinions; it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

The greatest man in history was the poorest

Great men are they who see that the spiritual is stronger than any material force.

Great geniuses have the shortest biographies.

The borrowing is often honest enough, and comes of magnanimity and stoutness. A great man quotes bravely and will not draw on his invention when his memory serves him with a word as good.

Every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world is the triumph of some enthusiasm.

He is great who confers the most benefits.

Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

The greatness of a man's power is the measure of his surrender.

Did you ever see a portrait of a great man without perceiving strong traits of pain and anxiety?