977 private quotes tagged great

“Great men, unknown to their generation, have their fame among the great who have preceded them, and all true worldly fame subsides from their high estimate beyond the stars.” — Henry David Thoreau

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“Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.” — Albert Einstein

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“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” — James Madison

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“Religion has done love a great service by making it a sin.” — Anatole France

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“In America, the race goes to the loud, the solemn, the hustler. If you think you're a great writer, you must say that you are.” — Gore Vidal

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“No man was ever great by imitation.” — Samuel Johnson

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“The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes

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“Ignorance of all things is an evil neither terrible nor excessive, nor yet the greatest of all but great cleverness and much learning, if they be accompanied by a bad training, are a much greater misfortune.” — Plato

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“The creations of a great writer are little more than the moods and passions of his own heart, given surnames and Christian names, and sent to walk the earth.” — William Butler Yeats

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“An invincible determination can accomplish almost anything and in this lies the great distinction between great men and little men.” — Thomas Fuller

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“Great nations are simply the operating fronts of behind-the-scenes, vastly ambitious individuals who had become so effectively powerful because of their ability to remain invisible while operating behind the national scenery.” — R. Buckminster Fuller

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“Though men are apt to flatter and exalt themselves with their great achievements, yet these are, in truth, very often owing not so much to design as chance.” — Francois de La Rochefoucauld

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“Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.” — Samuel Johnson

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“No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.” — H. L. Mencken

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“No great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty.” — George Eliot

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“There are events which are so great that if a writer has participated in them his obligation is to write truly rather than assume the presumption of altering them with invention.” — Ernest Hemingway

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“If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.” — Charles Darwin

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“There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms.” — George Eliot

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“When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative.” — Francis Bacon

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“He who has great power should use it lightly.” — Lucius Annaeus Seneca

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“Well, for us, in history where goodness is a rare pearl, he who was good almost takes precedence over he who was great.” — Victor Hugo

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“Preachers in pulpits talked about what a great message is in the book. No matter what you do, somebody always imputes meaning into your books.” — Dr. Seuss

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“To love one that is great, is almost to be great one's self.” — Samuel Johnson

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“Great countries are those that produce great people.” — Benjamin Disraeli

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“In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves... self-discipline with all of them came first.” — Harry S. Truman

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