Quotes on Great Men

It is a melancholy truth that even great men have their poor relations.

The great man fights the elements in his time that hinder his own greatness, in other words his own freedom and sincerity.

A book is like a single tree in a forest, in that it exists in conjunction with and because of a great many others around it.

It is hard to see how a great man can be an atheist. . . . We need to feel that behind us is intelligence and love.

Great men, great nations, have not been boasters and buffoons, but perceivers of the terror of life, and have manned themselves to face it.

The ideal of faith in ourselves is of the greatest help to us. If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished. Throughout the history of mankind, if any motive power has been more potent than another in the lives of all great men and women, it is that of faith in themselves.

There is no philosopher in the world so great but he believes a million things on the faith of other people and accepts a great many more truths than he demonstrates.

A great man leaves clean work behind him, and requires no sweeper up of the chips.

I fear uniformity. You cannot manufacture great men any more than you can manufacture gold.

If you feel proud, let it be in the thought that you are the servant of God, the son of God. Great men have the nature of a child. They are always a child before Him; so they are free from pride. All their strength is of God and not their own. It belongs to Him and comes from Him.

We expect a great man to be a good reader.

Pride is at the bottom of a great many errors and corruptions, and even of many evil practices, which have a great show and appearance of humility.

A part of eugenic politics would finally land us in an extensive use of the lethal chamber. A great many people would have to be put out of existence simply because it wastes other people's time to look after them.

Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.

The errors of great men are venerable because they are more fruitful than the truths of little men.

There's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half a year.

Heroism is the divine relation which, in all times, unites a great man to other men.

The truly great man is he who would master no one, and who would be mastered by none.

A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.

It is in times of difficulty that great nations like great men display the whole energy of their character and become an object of admiration to posterity.

All great men are play actors of their own ideal.