Great Men Quotes - Page 29

• It is when their age of passions is past that great men produce their masterpieces, just as it is after volcanic eruptions that the soil is most fertile.

  Nicolas Chamfort

  Passion, Past, Men

  Sébastien-Roch-Nicolas Chamfort (1902). “The Cynic's Breviary: Maxims and Anecdotes from Nicolas de Chamfort”

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• Great men are sometimes so even in small things.

  Luc de Clapiers

  Men, Sometimes, Small Things

  Jean de La Bruyère, Luc de Clapiers marquis de Vauvenargues (1903). “La Bruyère and Vauvenargues: Selections from the Characters, Reflexions and Maxims”

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• The truly great man is as apt to forgive as his power is able to revenge.

  Philip Sidney

  Forgiveness, Revenge, Men

  Sir Philip Sidney, Jane Porter (1807). “Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks”, p.54

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• Pennsylvania, the state that has produced two great men: Benjamin Franklin of Massachusetts, and Albert Gallatin of Switzerland.

  John James Ingalls

  Men, Two, Switzerland

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• In the popular arena, one can tell ... that the average man ... imagines that an industrious acquisition of particulars will render him a man of knowledge. With what pathetic trust does he recite his facts! He has been told that knowledge is power, and knowledge consists of a great many small things.

  Richard M. Weaver

  Men, Average, Doe

  Richard M. Weaver (2013). “Ideas Have Consequences”, p.13, University of Chicago Press

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• Great men in teaching weak men to reflect have set them on the road to error.

  Luc de Clapiers

  Teaching, Men, Weak Man

  Jean de La Bruyère, Luc de Clapiers marquis de Vauvenargues (1903). “La Bruyère and Vauvenargues: Selections from the Characters, Reflexions and Maxims”

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• A great many political speeches are literary parricides; they kill their fathers.

  George D. Prentice

  Father, Political, Speech

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• An obstacle is something you see when you take your eyes off the goal Few great men could pass personnel

  Paul Goodman

  Life And Love, Eye, Men

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• Nature never rhymes her children, nor makes two men alike. When we see a great man, we fancy a resemblance to some historical person, and predict the sequel of his character and fortune, a result which he is sure to disappoint. None will ever solve the problem of his character according to our prejudice, but only in his high unprecedented way.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Leadership, Children, Character

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.505, Library of America

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• I think the reason why I'm so alluring to networks is because on the surface I'm like a quintessential relatable, boring white guy. A great many sitcoms have been anchored by a boring white guy, so I feel like what they want to mine from me are my more generic qualities.

  Mike Birbiglia

  Thinking, White, Guy

  Source: www.esquire.com

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• When I was at Manchester, where there was a modern swimming pool, I was looked on as a great man, not for so trivial a reason as being an FRS, but because I used to dive off a five-metre board.

  Louis J. Mordell

  Swimming, Men, Boards

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• I'll tell you what makes a great manager: A great manager has a knack for making ballplayers think they are better than they think they are. He forces you to have a good opinion of yourself. He lets you know he believes in you.

  Reggie Jackson

  Believe, Thinking, Knack

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• What is a great love of books? It is something like a personal introduction to the great and good men of all past times. Books, it is true, are silent as you see them on their shelves; but, silent as they are, when I enter a library I feel as if almost the dead were present, and I know if I put questions to these books they will answer me with all the faithfulness and fulness which has been left in them by the great men who have left the books with us.

  John Bright

  Book, Men, Past

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• I know of no great men except those who have rendered great service to the human race.

  Voltaire

  Helping Others, Men, Race

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• The loss of sex polarity is part and parcel of the larger disintegration, the reflex of the soul's death, and coincident with the disappearance of great men, great deeds, great causes, great wars, etc.

  Henry Miller

  Death, Sex, War

  Henry Miller (1961). “The Cosmological Eye”, p.120, New Directions Publishing

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• I am not of the opinion generally entertained in this country [England], that man lives by Greek and Latin alone; that is, by knowing a great many words of two dead languages, which nobody living knows perfectly, and which are of no use in the common intercourse of life. Useful knowledge, in my opinion, consists of modern languages, history, and geography; some Latin may be thrown into the bargain, in compliance with custom, and for closet amusement.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Education, Country, Latin

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• Henry Kissinger is possessed of a truly superior intelligence, in addition to which he has two qualities which, unfortunately, many great men lack: he is able to listen and he has a very subtle sense of humour.

  Mohammed Reza Pahlavi

  Men, Two, Quality

  "The Shah's Story". Book by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, p. 144, 1980.

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• I like the Americans for a great many reasons. I like them because even the modern thing called industrialism has not entirely destroyed in them the very ancient thing called democracy. I like them because they have a respect for work which really curbs the human tendency to snobbishness.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  America, Democracy, Ancient

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• It was the saying of a great man, that if we could trace our descents, we should find all slaves to come from princes, and all princes from slaves; and fortune has turned all things topsy-turvy in a long series of revolutions; beside, for a man to spend his life in pursuit of a title, that serves only when he dies to furnish out an epitaph, is below a wise man's business.

  Seneca the Younger

  Wise, Men, Long

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• Mountains appear more lofty the nearer they are approached, but great men resemble them not in this particular.

  Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington

  Men, Greatness, Mountain

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• No particular man is necessary to the state. We may depend on it that, if we provide the country with popular institutions, those institutions will provide it with great men.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Country, Men, May

  "The Complete Writings of Lord Macaulay, vol. 17". Book by Thomas Babington Macaulay Baron Macaulay, p. 14, speech on parliamentary reform (March 2, 1831), 1900.

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• A great many people (not you) do now seem to think that the mere state of being worried is in itself meritorious. I don’t think it is. We must, if it so happens, give our lives for others: but even while we’re doing it, I think we’re meant to enjoy Our Lord and, in Him, our friends, our food, our sleep, our jokes, and the birds’ song and the frosty sunrise.

  C. S. Lewis

  Song, Sleep, Thinking

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• I can assure you that there is the greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life. You learn that which is of inestimable importance that there are a great many people in the world who are just as clever as you are. You learn to put your trust, by and by, in an economy and frugality of the exercise of your powers, both moral and intellectual; and you very soon find out, if you have not found it out before, that patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness.

  Thomas Huxley

  Clever, Exercise, People

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1900). “Collected Essays”

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• Great men should not have great faults.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Greatness, Men, Faults

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• Few great men could pass personnel.

  Paul Goodman

  Business, Men

  Growing Up Absurd" by Paul Goodman, (p. 153), 1956.

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