Greatness Quotes

Great people are not affected by each puff of wind that blows ill. Like great ships, they sail serenely on, in a calm sea or a great tempest.

No punishment, in my opinion, is too great, for the man who can build his greatness upon his country's ruin.

Faith is the mightiest force that man has at his command. It impels human beings to greatness in thought and word and deed.

The qualities of a great man are vision, integrity, courage, understanding, the power of articulation, and profundity of character.

All the historic precedents, the soaring graphs, the staggering statistics - these measure size more than substance. And the largeness and greatness of our nation would be almost a mockery - without a matching greatness of heart and largeness of vision as we look out upon the world.

Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.

Great men are meteors designed to burn so that earth may be lighted.

In our time no one has the conception of what is great. It is up to me to show them.

The greater the man, the less is he opinionative, he depends upon events and circumstances.

Greatness is nothing unless it be lasting.

When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.

In tragedy great men are more truly great than in history. We see them only in the crises which unfold them.

Read over and over again the campaigns of Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus, Turenne, Eugene and Frederic. Make them your models. This is the only way to become a great general and to master the secrets of the art of war. With your own genius enlightened by this study, you will reject all maxims opposed to those of these great commanders.

The fate of America cannot depend on any one man. The greatness of America is grounded in principles and not on any single personality.

We don't have to be victims of our past, that we can let go of our bitterness, and that all of us can achieve greatness.

No human being is perfect. In our individual and collective lives every expression of greatness is followed, not by a period symbolizing completeness, but by a comma implying partialness. Following every affirmation of greatness is the conjunction "but." Naaman "was a great man," says the Old Testament, "but . . ."-that "but" reveals something tragic and disturbing-"but he was a leper.

Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service.

If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.

Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.

At times we are able to humiliate our worst enemy. Inevitably, his weak moments come and we are able to thrust in his side the spear of defeat. But this we must not do.