“Great men have foibles for which they can be forgiven; including an occasional failure to see where their greatness lies, or what might diminish it.”

Spectrum: From Right to Left in the World of Ideas (2005), Ch. 13. "The Vanquished Left, Eric Hobsbawm" (2002)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Great men have foibles for which they can be forgiven; including an occasional failure to see where their greatness lie…" by Perry Anderson?
Perry Anderson photo
Perry Anderson 32
British historian 1938

Related quotes

Thomas Fuller photo
Livy photo

“He was always before men’s eyes; a course of action which, by increasing our familiarity with great men, diminishes our respect for them.”

Livy (-59–17 BC) Roman historian

Book XXXV, sec. 10
History of Rome

“All the great people and great things in life are failures. It is in doing what we cannot do but must try to do that humans rise to their exalted fulfillment. Maglie had tried to do with an old man’s arm and back what a young man might not have been able to do as well. Of such failures is greatness made.”

Arnold Hano (1922) American writer

On Sal Maglie's departure from Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, from A Day in the Bleachers https://books.google.com/books?id=iJqHg1sitk0C&pg=PA114 (1955) by Hano, p. 114
Other Topics

Henry Hawkins, 1st Baron Brampton photo

“No system of judicature can be suggested in which occasionally failure to insure complete justice may not arise.”

Henry Hawkins, 1st Baron Brampton (1817–1907) British judge

The Queen v. Miles (1890), L. R. 24 Q. B. 433.

Samuel Butler photo

“All men can do great things, if they know what great things are.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Great Things
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XI - Cash and Credit

Henry Taylor photo
Alexander Ovechkin photo

“You can have the best skill in the world, but he has lots of will and that’s why he’s great. You look at the great young players around the league, including our players that we have here, and it’s their will. That’s what separates great players from medium players.”

Alexander Ovechkin (1985) Russian ice hockey player

Denis Savard, interview in Tim Sassone (October 11, 2008) "Can Hawks close gaps on Ovechkin?", Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, Illinois), p. 4.
About

Uthman photo
Benjamin Franklin photo

“[A] great Empire, like a great Cake, is most easily diminished at the Edges.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …

"Rules By Which A Great Empire May Be Reduced To A Small One"; The Public Advertiser (September 11, 1773).
1770s

Sören Kierkegaard photo

Related topics