Great Quotes

30510 Great quotes by 12163 unique authors

The great must submit to the dominion of prudence and of virtue, or none will long submit to the dominion of the great. — Edmund Burke
A great person is one who affects the mind of their generation. — Benjamin Disraeli
At most, the greatest persons are but great wens, and excrescences; men of wit and delightful conversation, but as morals for ornament, except they be… — John Donne
The lights of stars that were extinguished ages ago still reaches us. So it is with great men who died centuries ago, but still reach… — Khalil Gibran
In historic events, the so-called great men are labels giving names to events, and like labels they have but the smallest connection with the event… — Leo Tolstoy
Great men never make bad use of their superiority. They see it and feel it and are not less modest. The more they have, the… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The superiority of some men is merely local. They are great because their associates are little. — Samuel Johnson
He is great who is what he is from nature, and who never reminds us of others. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
A position of eminence makes a great person greater and a small person less. — Jean de la Bruyere
A great man stands on God. A small man on a great man. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
I saw Linus Pauling as a brilliant lecturer and a man with a fantastic memory, and a great, great showman. I think he was the… — Max Perutz
In engineering, that only is great which achieves. It matters not what the intention is, he who in the day of battle is not victorious… — Henry Ward Beecher
Is it a fact-or have I dreamt it-that, by means of electricity, the world of matter has become a great nerve, vibrating thousands of miles… — Nathaniel Hawthorne
Most people like to believe something is or is not true. Great scientists tolerate ambiguity very well. They believe the theory enough to go ahead;… — Richard Hamming
There are some men who are counted great because they represent the actuality of their own age, and mirror it as it is. Such an… — Thomas Huxley
Worship the spirit of criticism. If reduced to itself it is not an awakener of ideas or a stimulant to great things, but, without it,… — Louis Pasteur
In life we shall find many men that are great, and some that are good, but very few men that are both great and good. — Charles Caleb Colton
The great man is too often all of a piece; it is the little man that is a bundle of contradictory elements. He is inexhaustible.… — W. Somerset Maugham
In tragedy great men are more truly great than in history. We see them only in the crises which unfold them. — Napoleon Bonaparte
There is sense in hoping for recognition in a distant future only when we take it for granted that mankind will remain essentially unchanged, and… — Friedrich Nietzsche
The safest kind of praise is to foretell that another will become great in some particular way. It has the greatest show of magnanimity and… — William Hazlitt
The great achievements of the past were the adventures of the past. Only the adventurous can understand the greatness of the past. — Alfred North Whitehead
When nature removes a great man, people explore the horizon for a successor; but none comes, and none will. His class is extinguished with him.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson
The two maxims of any great man at court are, always to keep his countenance, and never to keep his word. — Jonathan Swift
He only is a great man who can neglect the applause of the multitude and enjoy himself independent of its favor. — Joseph Addison

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