Famous Quotes & Sayings

William Cobbett

It is not the greatness of a man's means that makes him independent so much as the smallness of his wants

Henry Ward Beecher

Greatness lies, not in being strong, but in the right using of strength.

Joe Paterno

I thought we showed some greatness last night.

Blaise Pascal

All of our miseries prove our greatness. They are the miseries of a dethroned monarch.

Blaise Pascal

It is of dangerous consequence to represent to man how near he is to the level of beasts, without showing him at the same time his greatness. It is likewise dangerous to let him see his greatness without his meanness. It is more dangerous yet to leave him ignorant of either; but very beneficial that he should be made sensible of both.

Blaise Pascal

The greatness of man is great in that he knows himself to be wretched. A tree does not know itself to be wretched.

Blaise Pascal

A man does not show his greatness by being at one extremity, but rather by touching both at once.

Blaise Pascal

The origins of disputes between philosophers is, that one class of them have undertaken to raise man by displaying his greatness, and the other to debase him by showing his miseries.

Blaise Pascal

Those who profess contempt for men, and put them on a level with beasts, yet wish to be admired and believed by men, and contradict themselves by their own feelings--their nature, which is stronger than all, convincing them of the greatness of man more forcibly than reason convinces them of his baseness.

Blaise Pascal

To go beyond the bounds of moderation is to outrage humanity. The greatness of the human soul is shown by knowing how to keep within proper bounds. There are two equally dangerous extremes- to shut reason out, and not to let nothing in.

Blaise Pascal

That something so obvious as the vanity of the world should be so little recognized that people find it odd and surprising to be told that it is foolish to seek greatness; that is most remarkable.

Blaise Pascal

One has followed the other in an endless circle, for it is certain that as man's insight increases so he finds both wretchedness and greatness within himself. In a word man knows he is wretched. Thus he is wretched because he is so, but he is truly great because he knows it.

Blaise Pascal

Man is so great that his greatness appears even in the consciousness of his misery. A tree does not know itself to be miserable. It is true that it is misery indeed to know one's self to be miserable; but then it is greatness also. In this way, all man's miseries go to prove his greatness. They are the miseries of a mighty potentate, of a dethroned monarch.

Blaise Pascal

Great and small suffer the same mishaps.

Charles Spurgeon

Think not of the sinner or the greatness of his sin, but think of the greatness of the Savior!

Charles R. Swindoll

At least one indication of unbelief is the tendency to measure life's challenges against our own adequacy instead of God's promises. To enter our Sabbath rest, we must put an end to self-reliance - trusting in our own abilities to overcome difficulties, rise above challenges, escape tragedies, or achieve personal greatness.

Ayn Rand

The nation which once held the creed that greatness is achieved by production, is now told that it is achieved by squalor.

Ayn Rand

Hank, this is great." "Yes." He said it simply, openly. There was no flattered pleasure in his voice, and no modesty. This, she knew, was a tribute to her, the rarest one person could pay another: the tribute of feeling free to acknowledge one's own greatness, knowing that it is understood.

Benjamin Disraeli

A great person is one who affects the mind of their generation.

Calvin Coolidge

It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self-delusion. They are always surrounded by worshipers. They are constantly, and for the most part sincerely, assured of their greatness.

Alain de Botton

There are selections so acute that they come to define a place, with the result that we can no longer travel through that landscape without being reminded of what a great artist noticed there.

I did a little bit to raise the dignity and recognition of the greatness of African-American music.

Brandon Sanderson

That isn’t greatness. That’s just foolishness.

Archibald Alexander

No one was ever saved because his sins were small; no one was ever rejected on account of the greatness of his sins. Where sin abounded, grace shall much more abound.

Barbara Sher

Find what you love, because greatness is based on great gifts. If you love something, you can count on the fact that you are genetically gifted at it.

Art Garfunkel

It seems to me that at 19 or 20, a young man is burning to be great at something. I was. You have a vision that's beyond the neighborhood. You want to make a mark while you're alive. You don't know exactly your future, but you want to be great at it. And greatness is an important word. And you dare not tell anybody how extreme and how burning are your visions, because you don't want anybody to mess with them

Demosthenes

Everything great is not always good, but all good things, are great.

Denis Diderot

To say that man is a compound of strength and weakness, light and darkness, smallness and greatness, is not to indict him, it is to define him.

Edgar Allan Poe

To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.

Elbert Hubbard

To know the great men dead is compensation for having to live with the mediocre.

Elbert Hubbard

Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage but simply because they have never organized their energies around a goal.

Eduardo Galeano

The human rainbow had been mutilated by machismo, racism, militarism and a lot of other isms, who have been terribly killing our greatness, our possible greatness, our possible beauty.

Aristotle

Greatness of spirit is accompanied by simplicity and sincerity.