George Chapman: Greatness

George Chapman was English dramatist, poet, and translator. Explore interesting quotes on greatness.

George Chapman: 120 quotes6 likes

“Danger (the spur of all great minds) is ever
The curb to your tame spirits.”

George Chapman The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois

The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois (1613), Act V, scene i.

“They're only truly great who are truly good.”

Revenge for Honour, Act V, scene ii; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Disputed

“Fortune, the great commandress of the world,
Hath divers ways to advance her followers:
To some she gives honour without deserving,
To other some, deserving without honour.”

George Chapman All Fools

Act V, scene i.
All Fools (1605)

“Great goddess, to whose throne in Cynthian fires,
This earthly altar endless fumes expires;
Therefore, in fumes of sighs and fires of grief,
To fearful chances thou send'st bold relief,
Happy, thrice happy type, and nurse of death,
Who, breathless, feeds on nothing but our breath,
In whom must virtue and her issue live,
Or die for ever.”

Hymnus in noctem, line 1
The Shadow of Night (1594)

“This said, he reached to take his son; who, of his arms afraid,
And then the horse-hair plume, with which he was so overlaid,
Nodded so horribly, he clinged back to his nurse, and cried.
Laughter affected his great sire, who doffed and laid aside
His fearful helm, that on the earth cast round about it light;
Then took and kissed his loving son, and (balancing his weight
In dancing him) these loving vows to living Jove he used,
And all the other bench of Gods: "O you that have infused
Soul to this infant, now set down this blessing on his star:
Let his renown be clear as mine; equal his strength in war."”

Book VI, line 506, p. 94
The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets (1611)

“As cedars beaten with continual storms,
So great men flourish; and do imitate
Unskilful statuaries, who suppose,
In forging a Colossus, if they make him
Straddle enough, strut, and look big, and gape,
Their work is goodly: so men merely great
In their affected gravity of voice,
Sourness of countenance, manners' cruelty,
Authority, wealth, and all the spawn of fortune,
Think they bear all the kingdom's worth before them,
Yet differ not from those colossic statues,
Which, with heroic forms without o'erspread,
Within are naught but mortar, flint and lead.”

George Chapman Bussy D'Ambois

Act I, scene i.
Bussy D'Ambois (1607)