A great man is always willing to be little.
Interpretation
True greatness involves humility and the willingness to embrace smallness.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson highlights the idea that true greatness is not defined by one's stature or achievements, but rather by the capacity to be humble and approachable. It suggests that great individuals do not shy away from humility, and their willingness to be 'little' or modest allows them to connect better with others and contribute positively to their communities.
In practice
During a leadership workshop, this quote can be used to emphasize the importance of humility in effective leadership.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
Esther, however, was the only woman who understood one very simple thing: in order to be able to find her, I first had to find myself.
Ignorance, poverty, and greed must disappear so that light can prevail in all places.
'Tis not enough your counsel still be true; Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do.
That prayer has great power which a person makes with all his might. It makes a sour heart sweet, a sad heart merry, a poor heart rich, a foolish heart wise, a timid heart brave, a sick heart well, a blind heart full of sight, a cold heart ardent. It draws down the great God into the little heart; it drives the hungry soul up into the fullness of God; it brings together two lovers, God and the soul, in a wondrous place where they speak much of love.
Long live impudence. It was my guardian angel in this world.
The fool who loves giving advice on our garden never tends his own plants
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