Related quotes
“It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.”
Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist
“The foolishness of the great and the wealthy is an excellent source of revenue for the humble.”
Antoine François Prévost (1697–1763) French novelist
C'est un fonds excellent de revenu pour les petits, que la sottise des riches et des grands.
Part 1, p. 83; translation p. 38.
L'Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut (1731)
“Humbleness and effeminacy are not things that a great cricketer can afford to have.”
Aubrey Faulkner (1881–1930) South African cricketer
Cricket: Can it be Taught? (1926), ASIN: B000XTEYX2
“You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great”
Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker
“you don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.”
Les Brown (1945) American politician
Variant: you don't have to be great to get started but you have to to get started to be great
“Music should humbly seek to please; within these limits great beauty may perhaps be found.”
Claude Debussy (1862–1918) French composer
Quoted in French Music : From the Death of Berlioz to the Death of Fauré (1951) by Martin Cooper, p. 136, and in Debussy and Wagner (1979) by Robin Holloway, p. 207
Context: Music should humbly seek to please; within these limits great beauty may perhaps be found. Extreme complication is contrary to art. Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part.
“Rome has grown since its humble beginnings that it is now overwhelmed by its own greatness.”
Livy (-59–17 BC) Roman historian
Praefatio, sec. 4
History of Rome
Frédéric Bastiat (1801–1850) French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly