“One must not just have great qualities, but also economize them”

The Times, 21/04/2006
On Classical Music

Akio Morita, cited in: Mark Fisher (1991) The millionaire's book of quotations. p. 80.

Golden Sayings of Epictetus
Context: It is hard to combine and unite these two qualities, the carefulness of one who is affected by circumstances, and the intrepidity of one who heeds them not. But it is not impossible: else were happiness also impossible. We should act as we do in seafaring: “What can I do?”—Choose the master, the crew, the day, the opportunity. Then comes a sudden storm. What matters it to me? my part has been fully done. The matter is in the hands of another—the Master of the ship. The ship is foundering. What then have I to do? I do the only thing that remains to me—to be drowned without fear, without a cry, without upbraiding God, but knowing that what has been born must likewise perish. For I am not Eternity, but a human being—a part of the whole, as an hour is part of the day. I must come like the hour, and like the hour must pass! (186).

Source: "On Gestalt Qualities," 1890, p. 97

Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962) – The first Spider-Man story.
In later stories and adaptations, including the 2002 movie, this has appeared as "With great power comes great responsibility."
The saying pre-dates Amazing Fantasy. The phrase "with great power goes great responsibility" was spoken by J. Hector Fezandie in an 1894 graduation address at The Stevens Institute of Technology - "The Moral Influence of a Scientific Education", The Stevens Indicator, Volume 11, Page 217. The exact phrase was repeated during a speech by President Harry S. Truman in November 1950 - Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, 6666 (published 1965), Page 703. A UK Member of Parliament implied in 1817 that a variant of it was already a cliché ([1817, 1227, Parliamentary Debates, Thomas C. Hansard, http://books.google.co.uk/books?lr=&output=text&as_brr=0&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=1850&id=B6w9AAAAcAAJ&dq=%22great-power+*+great-responsibility%22&q=%22%22that%2Bthe%2Bpossession%2Bof%2Bgreat%2Bpower%2Bnecessarily%2Bimplies%2Bgreat%2Bresponsibility%22%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26ei%3DYX5WUqnYGaiO4wT9poCwBQ%26ved%3D0CDMQ6wEwAA%23v%3Donepage%26q%3D%22that+the+possession+of+great+power+necessarily+implies+great+responsibility%22%26f%3Dfalse%22#v=onepage&q=%22%22that%2Bthe%2Bpossession%2Bof%2Bgreat%2Bpower%2Bnecessarily%2Bimplies%22&f=false, October 10, 2013, He should, however, beg leave to remind the conductors of the press of their duty to apply to themselves a maxim which they never neglected to urge on the consideration of government—" that the possession of great power necessarily implies great responsibility."] The editor is quoting William Lamb (pp. 1125–1229)). The sentiment is also found in Luke 12:48: "from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked" (NIV).

The New York Times Magazine (7 June 1970)

As quoted in Dirty Little Secrets : Military Information You're Not Supposed To Know (1990) by James F. Dunnigan and Albert A. Nofi, p. 50

Source: Economics Of The Welfare State (Fourth Edition), Chapter 4, State Intervention, p. 73

Speech before the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York. August 30, 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3613480.stm