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Greatness: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
Burn to be great, Pay not thy praise to lofty things alone. The plains are everlasting as the hills, The bard cannot have two pursuits; aught else Comes on the mind with the like shock as though Two worlds had gone to war, and met in air.— BAILEY — Festus. Sc. Home.
Nothing can cover his high fame but heaven; No pyramids set off his memories, But the eternal substance of his greatness, - To which I leave him.— BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER — The False One. Act II. Sc. I.
Man's Unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his Greatness; it is because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the Finite.— CARLYLE — Sartor Resartus. The
The Everlasting Yea. Bk. II. Ch. IX. We have not the love of greatness, but the love of the love of greatness.— CARLYLE — Essays. Characteristics. Vol. III.
The great man who thinks greatly of himself, is not diminishing that greatness in heaping fuel on his fire.— ISAAC DISRAELI — Literary Character of Men of Genius. Ch. XV.
So let his name through Europe ring! A man of mean estate, Who died as firm as Sparta's king, Because his soul was great.— SIR FRANCIS HASTINGS DOYLE — The
Private of the Buffs. No great deed is done By falterers who ask for certainty.— GEORGE ELIOT — The Spanish Gypsy. Bk. I. 56th line from end.
He is great who is what he is from Nature, and who never reminds us of others.— EMERSON — Essays. Second Series.
Uses of Great Men. Nature never sends a great man into the planet, without confiding the secret to another soul.— EMERSON — Uses of Great Men.
He who comes up to his own idea of greatness, must always have had a very low standard of it in his mind.— HAZLITT — Table Talk. Whether Genius
is Conscious of its own Power. No really great man ever thought himself so.— HAZLITT — Table Talk. Whether Genius
is Conscious of its own Power. *** Ajax the great Himself a host.— HOMER — Iliad. Bk. III. L. 293.
Pope's trans. For he that once is good, is ever great.— BEN JONSON — The Forest. To Lady
Aubigny. Greatness on goodness loves to slide, not stand, And leaves, for fortune's ice, vertue's firm land.— RICHARD KNOLLES — Turkish History.
Under a portrait of Mustapha I. L. 13. Great men stand like solitary towers in the city of God.— LONGFELLOW — Kavanagh. Ch. I.
A great man is made up of qualities tha meet or make great occasions.— LOWELL — My Study Windows. Garfielà...
The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart.— MENCIUS — Works. Bk. IV. Pt. II. Ch. XII.
Are not great Men the models of nations? OWEN MEREDITH (Lord Lytton)- Lucile. Pt. II. Canto VI. St. 29. That man is great, and he alone, Who serves a greatness not his own, For neither praise nor pelf: Content to know and be unknown: Whole in himself. OWEN MEREDITH (Lord Lytton)-- A Great Man. Are yet two Romans living such as these? The last of all the Romans, fare thee well! Julius Cæsar. Act V. Sc. 3. L. 98. But thou art fair, and at thy birth, dear boy, Nature and Fortune join'd to make thee great.— Shakespeare — King John. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 51.
Greatness knows itself.— Shakespeare — Henry IV. Pt. I. Act IV. Sc. 3. L. 74.
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.— Shakespeare — Twelfth Night. Act II. Sc. 5. L. 157.
They that stand high have many blasts to shake them; And if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces.— Shakespeare — Richard III. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 259.
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus, and we petty men Walk under his huge legs and peep about To find ourselves dishonorable graves. Julius Cæsar. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 135. Your name is great In mouths of wisest censure.— Shakespeare — Othello. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 192.
Not that the heavens the little can make great, But many a man has lived an age too late.— R. H. STODDARD — To Edmund Clarence
Stedman. Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.— SWIFT — Thoughts on Various Subjects.
The world knows nothing of its greatest men.— HENRY TAYLOR — Philip Van Artevelde. Act I. Sc. 5.
He fought a thousand glorious wars, And more than half the world was his, And somewhere, now, in yonder stars, Can tell, mayhap, what greatness is.— THACKERAY — The Chronicle of the
Drum. Last verse. 0, happy they that never saw the court, Nor ever knew great men but by report!— JOHN WEBSTER — The White Devil; or, Vittoria Corombona. Act V. Sc. VI.
Et errat longé meâ quidem sententiâ Qui imperium credit gravius esse aut stabilius, Vi quod fit, quam illud quod amicitiâ adjungitur. It is a great error, in my opinion, to believe that a government is more firm or assured when it is supported by force, than when founded on affection.— TERENCE — Adelphi. I. 1. 40.
Hæ tibi erunt artes, pacisque imponere morem Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos. This shall be thy work: to impose conditions of peace, to spare the lowly, and to overthrow the proud.— VIRGIL — Eneid. VI. 852.
Nemo vir magnus aliquo afflatu divino unquam fuit. No man was ever great without divine inspiration.— CICERO — De Natura Deorum. II. 66.
Urit enim fulgore suo qui prægravat artes Intra se positas; extinctus amabitur idem. That man scorches with his brightness, who overpowers inferior capacities, yet he shall be revered when dead.— HORACE — Epistolæ. II. 1. 13.
Magnam fortunam magnus animus decet. A great mind becomes a great fortune.— SENECA — De Clementia. I. 5.
Il n'appartient qu'aux grands hommes d'avoir de grands défauts. It is the prerogative of great men only to have great defects.— LA ROCHEFOUCAULD — Maximes.
Les grands ne sont grands que parceque nous les portons sur nos épaules; nous n'avons qu'à les secouer pour en joncher la terre. The great are only great because we carry them on our shoulders; when we throw them off they sprawl on the ground.— MONTANDRÉ — Point de l' Ovale.
Les grands ne sont grands que parceque nous sommes à genoux: relevons nous. The great are only great because we are on our knees. Let us rise up. C.— PRUD'HOMME — Révolutions de Paris.
Motto. Es ist der Fluch der Hohen, dass die Niedern Sich ihres offnen Ohrs bemächtigen. The curse of greatness : Ears ever open to the babbler's tale.— SCHILLER — Die Braut von Messina. I.