Ordinary Man Quotes

• A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.

  Joseph Campbell

  Life, Inspiring, Veterans Day

  Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.151, Anchor

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• The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart.

  Mencius

  Positive, Christmas, Wisdom

  Confucius, Mencius (1861). “The works of mencius”, p.198

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• The taste for glory can make ordinary men behave in extraordinary ways.

  Tahir Shah

  Men, Way, Taste

  Tahir Shah (2013). “House of the Tiger King, Dyslexic edition”, p.96, Lulu.com

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• Great men are just ordinary men that didn't quit.

  Tommy Barnett

  Men, Ordinary, Quitting

  24 Copy quote

• No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Motherhood, Opportunity

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph H. Orth, Glen M. Johnson (1994). “The Topical Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.115, University of Missouri Press

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• It is difficult, none the less, for the ordinary man to cast off orthodox beliefs, for he is seldom allowed to hear the other side... Whereas the Christian view is pressed on him day in and day out.

  Margaret E. Knight

  Christian, Men, Views

  26 Copy quote

• I am an ordinary man who worked hard to develop the talent I was given.

  Muhammad Ali

  Men, Ordinary, Talent

  9 Copy quote

• Any ordinary man can...surround himself with two thousand books...and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy.

  Augustine Birrell

  Happiness, Book, Men

  7 Copy quote

• One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.

  Elbert Hubbard

  Inspirational, Motivational, Strength

  A Thousand and One Epigrams (1911)

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• A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Love, Inspirational, Motivational

  102 Copy quote

• The ordinary man with extraordinary power is the chief danger for mankind - not the fiend or the sadist.

  Erich Fromm

  Fear, Power, Men

  Erich Fromm (2011). “The Heart of Man”, p.18, Lantern Books

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• The greatest political storm flutters only a fringe of humanity. But an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children literally alter the destiny of nations.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Children, Destiny, Men

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• Kindness is not an illusion and violence is not a rule. The true resting state of human affairs is not represented by a man hacking his neighbor into pieces with a machete. That is a sick aberration. No, the true state of human affairs is life as it ought to be lived.

  Paul Rusesabagina

  Kindness, Men, Sick

  Paul Rusesabagina (2009). “An Ordinary Man: The True Story Behind Hotel Rwanda”, p.130, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• This is why I say that the individual's most potent weapon is a stubborn belief in the triumph of common decency.

  Paul Rusesabagina

  Common Decency, Triumph, Stubborn

  Paul Rusesabagina (2009). “An Ordinary Man: The True Story Behind Hotel Rwanda”, p.130, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• There is a terrible alienation in the ordinary man between what he is being told and what he secretly believes.

  John le Carre

  Believe, Men, Ordinary

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• The passing of an ordinary man is sad. The passing of a great man is tragic, and doubly tragic when the greatness passes before the man does.

  Harpo Marx

  Greatness, Men, Ordinary

  Harpo Marx, Rowland Barber (2004). “Harpo Speaks!”, p.400, Hal Leonard Corporation

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• A democracy without faith is just a machine without power. Nothing can make it function except faith in itself, in the ordinary man and woman.

  Eleanor Dark

  Men, Democracy, Ordinary

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• Higgins: I'm an ordinary man, who desires nothing more than just an ordinary chance, to live exactly as he likes, and do precisely what he wants. An average man am I, of no eccentric whim, Who likes to live his life, free of strife Doing whatever he thinks is best for him, Well, just an ordinary man

  Rex Harrison

  Life, Men, Thinking

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• We know that the wildest and most moving dramas are played not in the theatre but in the hearts of ordinary men and women.

  Carl Jung

  Drama, Moving, Heart

  Carl Gustav Jung, Richard Francis Carrington Hull (1992). “Two Essays on Analytical Psychology”, p.257, Psychology Press

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• The years go by one after the other; time slips past us with out our being aware of it; we grow old like ordinary men and we shall end like them.

  Louis XIV

  Past, Men, Years

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• That which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in. and the best of me is diligence.

  William Shakespeare

  Persistence, Men, Ordinary

  William Shakespeare (2001). “King Lear”, p.63, Classic Books Company

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• The true poetry of life: the poetry of the commonplace, of the ordinary man, of the plain, toil-worn woman, with their loves and their joys, their sorrows and their griefs.

  William Osler

  Grief, Men, Joy

  Sir William Osler, Mark E. Silverman, T. J. Murray, Charles S. Bryan, American College of Physicians--American Society of Internal Medicine (2003). “The Quotable Osler”, p.31, ACP Press

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• If you want to make an ordinary man happy, or think that he is happy, give him money, power, flattery, gifts, honours. If you want to make a wise man happy - improve yourself!

  Idries Shah

  Wise, Men, Thinking

  Idries Shah (1983). “Reflections”, p.28, Octagon Press Ltd

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• A man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting... Thus a man of knowledge sweats and puffs and if one looks at him he is just like an ordinary man, except that the folly of his life is under his control.

  Carlos Castaneda

  Knowledge, Men, Thinking

  "Separate Reality: Conversations With Don Juan". Book by Carlos Castaneda, p. 85, 1971.

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• He was the most ordinary man in all the world, and yet in her memory he'd become luminous, like the prince in a fairy tale.

  Cheryl Strayed

  Memories, Men, Ordinary

  Cheryl Strayed (2014). “Torch”, p.161, Atlantic Books Ltd

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