Greatness Quotes - Page 4

• No one who has come to true greatness has not felt in some degree that his life belongs to the people, and what God has given them he gives it for mankind.

  Phillips Brooks

  Life, God, People

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• Some people have greatness thrust upon them. Very few have excellence thrust upon them.

  John W. Gardner

  People, Perfection, Excellence

  Dr. John W. Gardner (2015). “Excellence: Can We Be Equal And Excellent Too?”, p.103, Pickle Partners Publishing

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• I always knew I was destined for greatness.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Attitude, Positive Thinking, Individuality

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• Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.

  Robert Kennedy

  Change, Courage, Creativity

  Robert F. Kennedy (1998). “Make Gentle the Life of the World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy”, Harcourt

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• The greatest man is he who forms the taste of a nation; the next greatest is he who corrupts it.

  Joshua Reynolds

  Men, Taste, Next

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• It is the privilege of posterity to set matters right between those antagonists who, by their rivalry for greatness, divided a whole age.

  Joseph Addison

  Age, Matter, Privilege

  Joseph Addison, Richard Hurd, Henry George Bohn (1873). “The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison”, p.425

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• It is not the greatness of a man's means that makes him independent, so much as the smallness of his wants.

  William Cobbett

  Mean, Independent, Men

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  Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

  Khalil Gibran

  Inspirational, Life, Faith

  Khalil Gibran “Selected Short Works of Khalil Gibran”, Library of Alexandria

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• All your youth you want to have your greatness taken for granted; when you find it taken for granted, you are unnerved.

  Elizabeth Bowen

  Taken, Want, Youth

  ELIZABETH BOWEN (1935). “The House in Paris”

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• An ignorance of means may minister to greatness, but an ignorance of aims make it impossible to be great at all.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Ignorance, Mean, May

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• The nearer we come to great men the more clearly we see that they are only men. They rarely seem great to their valets.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Men, Valet, Seems

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• Man's greatness consists in his ability to do and the proper application of his powers to things needed to be done.

  Frederick Douglass

  Patriotic, Power, Men

  Frederick Douglass (1950). “The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass: Early years, 1817-1849”

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• A great thing can only be done by a great person; and they do it without effort.

  John Ruskin

  Effort, Done, Great Person

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• A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.

  Elbert Hubbard

  Memories, May, Forget

  Elbert Hubbard, Bert Hubbard (1923). “Selected writings of Elbert Hubbard: his mintage of wisdom, coined from a life of love, laughter and work”

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• The dullard's envy of brilliant men is always assuaged by the suspicion that they will come to a bad end.

  Max Beerbohm

  Inspirational, Men, Envy

  Zuleika Dobson (1911) ch. 4

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• A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Inspirational, Life, Success

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• Great men stand like solitary towers in the city of God.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Men, Cities, Towers

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2012). “Kavanagh (Annotated Edition)”, p.16, Jazzybee Verlag

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• It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god.

  Seneca the Younger

  God, Men, Frail

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• It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.

  Edmund Burke

  Nature, Statistics, Dignity

  Speech 'On American Taxation' 19 April 1774

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• Great men are true men, the men in whom nature has succeeded. They are not extraordinary - they are in the true order. It is the other species of men who are not what they ought to be.

  Henri Frederic Amiel

  Hero, Men, Order

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• Nature never sends a great man into the planet, without confiding the secret to another soul.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Soul, Secret

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1550, Delphi Classics

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• Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Inspirational, Positive, Happiness

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• No, our greatness does not come from our government.

  Sonny Perdue

  Government, Doe

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• Being too good is apt to be uninteresting.

  Harry S. Truman

  Be Good, Uninterested

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• To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Life, Success

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