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

  19 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

  24 Copy quote

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

  Muhammad Ali

  Men, Ordinary, Talent

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• 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

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• 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

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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 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 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• Although the semicircle of the Moon is placed above the circle of the Sun and would appear to be superior, nevertheless we know that the Sun is ruler and King. We see that the Moon in her shape and her proximity rivals the Sun with her grandeur, which is apparent to ordinary men, yet the face, or a semi-sphere of the Moon, always reflects the light of the Sun.

  John Dee

  Kings, Moon, Men

  John Dee (2000). “The Hieroglyphic Monad”, p.10, Weiser Books

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• Given Pounds and five years, and an ordinary man can in the ordinary course, without any undue haste or putting any pressure upon his taste, surround himself with books, all in his own language, and thence forward have at least one place in the world.

  Augustine Birrell

  Book, Men, Years

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• Unable to create a meaningful life for itself, the personality takes its own revenge: from the lower depths comes a regressive form of spontaneity: raw animality forms a counterpoise to the meaningless stimuli and the vicarious life to which the ordinary man is conditioned. Getting spiritual nourishment from this chaos of events, sensations, and devious interpretations is the equivalent of trying to pick through a garbage pile for food.

  Lewis Mumford

  Meaningful, Spiritual, Revenge

  "The Conduct Of Life" by Lewis Mumford, Ch. 1, 1951.

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