“The first step toward greatness is to be honest, says the proverb; but the proverb fails to state the case strong enough. Honesty is not only "the first step toward greatness,"”

it is greatness itself.
Reported in Louis Klopsch, Many Thoughts of Many Minds (1896), p. 133.

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 "The first step toward greatness is to be honest, says the proverb; but the proverb fails to state the case strong enoug…" by Christian Nestell Bovee?
Christian Nestell Bovee photo
Christian Nestell Bovee 21
American writer 1820–1904

Related quotes

Denis Diderot photo

“Scepticism is the first step towards truth.”

As quoted in The Anchor Book of French Quotations with English Translations (1963) by Norbert Gutermam
Pensées Philosophiques (1746)
Variant: A thing is not proved just because no one has ever questioned it. What has never been gone into impartially has never been properly gone into. Hence skepticism is the first step toward truth. It must be applied generally, because it is the touchstone.
Variant: The first step towards philosophy is incredulity.
Source: Pensées philosophiques

Margaret Sanger photo

“Birth control is the first important step woman must take toward the goal of her freedom. It is the first step she must take to be man’s equal. It is the first step they must both take toward human emancipation.”

Margaret Sanger (1879–1966) American birth control activist, educator and nurse

"Morality and Birth Control", February-March, 1918, pp. 11,14.
Birth Control Review, 1918-32

William Stanley Jevons photo

“A correct theory is the first step towards improvement”

Source: The Theory of Political Economy (1871), Chapter I, Introduction, p. 44.
Context: A correct theory is the first step towards improvement, by showing what we need and what we might accomplish.

Joseph Delaney photo

“The first step towards knowledge is to accept your own ignorance.”

Joseph Delaney (1945) British writer

Source: Curse of the Bane

Peter F. Drucker photo

“The first step toward making the worker achieving is to make work productive.”

Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant

Source: 1960s - 1980s, MANAGEMENT: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (1973), Part 1, p. 199

Walter Bagehot photo

“The great difficulty which history records is not that of the first step, but that of the second step.”

Walter Bagehot (1826–1877) British journalist, businessman, and essayist

Source: Physics and Politics http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/phypl10.txt (1869), Ch. 2, The Use of Conflict
Context: The great difficulty which history records is not that of the first step, but that of the second step. What is most evident is not the difficulty of getting a fixed law, but getting out of a fixed law; not of cementing (as upon a former occasion I phrased it) a cake of custom, but of breaking the cake of custom; not of making the first preservative habit, but of breaking through it, and reaching something better.

Related topics