Quotes about greatness
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“don't sabotage your own greatness by succumbing to failure!”

Terry McMillan book A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Source: A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Failure

“Besides my great fashion sense? I play a mean harmonica.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

Fashion, Sense

“You must be careful when you ask people whether they’re happy; it’s a question that can upset them a great deal.”

François Lelord (1953) French writer

People, Question, Happiness

“Yes,' she said. 'The Great Prophecy has begun.'
Pandemonium broke out.”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

“Great difficulties may be surmounted by patience and perseverance.”

Abigail Adams (1744–1818) 2nd First Lady of the United States (1797–1801)

Letter to John Adams (27 November 1775)
Source: The Quotable Abigail Adams
Context: I feel anxious for the fate of our monarchy, or democracy, or whatever is to take place. I soon get lost in a labyrinth of perplexities; but, whatever occurs, may justice and righteousness be the stability of our times, and order arise out of confusion. Great difficulties may be surmounted by patience and perseverance.

Patience, Perseverance

“Are some people destined for a great fate, or to do great things? Or is it only that they're born somehow with that great passion -- and if they find themselves in the right circumstances, then things happen? It's the sort of thing you wonder…”

Diana Gabaldon book Voyager

Source: Voyager

Fate, People, Passion

“…as man under pressure tends to give in to physical and intellectual weakness, only great strength of will can lead to the objective.”

Carl von Clausewitz book On War

On War (1832), Book 3

“Turgenev was a very serious fellow but he could make me laugh because a truth first encountered can be very funny. When someone else's truth is the same as your truth, and he seems to be saying it just for you, that's great.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

Truth

“Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day.”

Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American playwright and novelist

Reading

“In many respects, the United States is a great country. Freedom of speech is protected more than in any other country. It is also a very free society. In America, the professor talks to the mechanic. They are in the same category.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Freedom, Country

“One of the great conditions of anger and hatred is, that you must tell and believe lies against the hated object, in order, as we said, to be consistent.”

William Makepeace Thackeray Vanity Fair

Source: Vanity Fair

Hate, Anger

“… a Dorito asks nothing of you, which is its great gift. It only asks that you are not there.”

Aimee Bender (1969) Novelist, short story writer

Source: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

“To a great mind, nothing is little,' remarked Holmes, sententiously.”

Arthur Conan Doyle book A Study in Scarlet

Source: A Study in Scarlet

“Too many of us take great pains with what we ingest through our mouths, and far less with what we partake of through our ears and eyes.”

Brandon Sanderson book The Way of Kings

Source: The Way of Kings

Pain

“Art is, after all, only a trace – like a footprint which shows that one has walked bravely and in great happiness.”

Robert Henri (1865–1929) American painter

Art, Happiness

“The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are.”

John Burroughs (1837–1921) American naturalist and essayist

Distant

“Somewhere in the world there is a defeat for everyone. Some are destroyed by defeat, and some made small and mean by victory. Greatness lives in one who triumphs equally over defeat and victory.”

John Steinbeck book The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights

Source: The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights

World, Victory

“The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, a
new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be
released and channeled toward some great good.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

World, Waiting, Personality

“Oh, London is a man’s town, there’s power in the air;
And Paris is a woman’s town, with flowers in her hair;
And it’s sweet to dream in Venice, and it’s great to study Rome;
But when it comes to living, there is no place like home.”

Henry Van Dyke (1852–1933) American diplomat

Variant: Oh, London is a man's town, there's power in the air;
And Paris is a woman's town, with flowers in her hair;
And it's sweet to dream in Venice, and it's great to study Rome;
But when it comes to living there is no place like home.
Source: America for Me (1909), Lines 9-12.

Dreams, Home, Flowers, Study

“It's strange to describe reading a book as a really great experience, but that's kind of how it felt.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Books, Reading

“There are some awful things in the world, it's true, but there are also some great books.”

Jo Walton book Among Others

Source: Among Others

Books, World

“You can cover a great deal of country in books.”

Andrew Lang (1844–1912) Scots poet, novelist and literary critic

Books, Country

“the great lack of parity between husbands and wives has always been spawned by the disproportionate degree of self-sacrifice that women are willing to make on behalf of those they love.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage

Source: Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage

Love, Women

“I know. I was there. I saw the great void in your soul, and you saw mine.”

Sebastian Faulks book Birdsong

Source: Birdsong

Soul

“It is one of the great joys of home ownership to fire a pistol in one's own bedroom”

Alfred Jarry (1873–1907) French writer

Home, Joy

“He was a great poet" They lamented.

No, he was not a great poet," said Theo, "He was a good poet, he could have been better. That's the real loss don't you see?”

Lloyd Alexander book The Kestrel

Source: The Kestrel

Loss

“If you look up "charming" in the dictionary, you'll see that it not only has references to strong attraction, but to spells and magic. Then again, what are liars if not great magicians?”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Secret Life of Prince Charming

Strong

“I think it would be very glamorous to be reincarnated as a great big ring on Liz Taylor's finger.”

Andy Warhol book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

Source: The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

Thinking

“Fate gives all of us three teachers, three friends, three enemies, and three great loves in our lives. But these twelve are always disguised, and we can never know which one is which until we’ve loved them, left them, or fought them.”

Gregory David Roberts book Shantaram

Source: Shantaram

Love, Fate, Teachers

“… no one is born a great cook, one learns by doing.”

Julia Child My Life in France

Source: My Life in France

Learning, Cooking

“There are many great authors of the past who have survived centuries of oblivion and neglect, but it is still an open question whether they will be able to survive an entertaining version of what they have to say.”

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) Jewish-American political theorist

Question, Past

“I've developed a great reputation for wisdom by ordering more books than I ever had time to read, and reading more books, by far, than I learned anything useful from, except, of course, that some very tedious gentlemen have written books.”

Marilynne Robinson Gilead

Source: Gilead

Wisdom, Books, Learning, Time

“As all historians know, the past is a great darkness, and filled with echoes.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Historical Notes (p. 311)
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985)
Source: The Handmaid's Tale
Context: As all historians know, the past is a great darkness, and filled with echoes. Voices may reach us from it; but what they say to us is imbued with the obscurity of the matrix out of which they come; and, try as we may, we cannot always decipher them precisely in the clearer light of our own day.

Past

“The world today is ruled by harassed politicians absorbed in getting into office or turning out the other man so that not much room is left for debating the great issues on their merits”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

World

“He's got a great sense of humor for a guy who never says anything.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Guy, Sense

“When kids look up to great scientists the way they do to great musicians and actors, civilization will jump to the next level”

Brian Greene (1963) American physicist

Way

“To be great is to be misunderstood.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Source: Self-Reliance and Other Essays

“Some people have difficulty telling the difference between something great and something they've simply heard of.”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

People

“Small children are great accepters. They don’t understand shame, or the need to hide things.”

Stephen King book The Shining

Source: The Shining

Children, Understanding

“Computers are great because when you're working with them you get immediate results that let you know if your program works. It's feedback you don't get from many other things.”

Bill Gates (1955) American business magnate and philanthropist

“I'm tired of seeing great women in bullshit relationships.”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

Source: He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys

Women

“Lord, I feel so small sometimes in this great big old world.
Yeah, I know there are more important things.
But don't forget to remember me.”

Carrie Underwood (1983) American country music singer

World, Feeling, Forgetting

“One of the greatest discoveries a person makes, one of their great surprises, is to find they can do what they were afraid they couldn't do.”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

Personality

“Why be so bloody miserable when you can pick up a good book or watch a great television drama?”

Michael Dobbs (1948) British conservative politician and best-selling author

Books

“Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.”

Robert Frost Fire and Ice

"Fire and Ice" (1923)
General sources

Hate, World, Thinking

“Most people are lucky to have even one great love in their life. You have found two.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Love, Life, People

“We don't have a great war in our generation, or a great depression, but we do, we have a great war of the spirit. We have a great revolution against the culture. The great depression is our lives. We have a spiritual depression.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

War

“Oh great. Yoda captured us.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Final Warning

“Don't look back—forward, infinite energy, infinite enthusiasm, infinite daring, and infinite patience—then alone can great deeds be accomplished.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Pearls of Wisdom

Patience

“Each day the storm clouds were opening like great purple flowers and pouring out their dark thunder. Each nightfall, the storm was laid down on their houses like a burden the day had carried.”

Eudora Welty (1909–2001) American author

Source: The Wide Net and Other Stories

Flowers, Housing

“We humans have two great problems: the first is knowing when to begin; the second is knowing when to stop.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Problem

“This boy thinks I am not of his species, that I am some other kind of creature, one that can be crushed under the weight of a phone book.

The pain is not great, but the symbolism is disagreeable.”

Dave Eggers book What Is the What

Source: What Is the What

Pain, Books, Boy, Thinking

“Forecasts may tell you a great deal about the forecaster; they tell you nothing about the future.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

Future

“The naked woman’s body is a portion of eternity too great for the eye of man.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

“What Richard is talking about is instead admitting to the existence of negative thoughts, understanding where they came from and why they arrived, and then - with great forgiveness and fortitude - dismissing them.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Forgiveness, Understanding

“Vitally, the human race is dying. It is like a great uprooted tree, with its roots in the air. We must plant ourselves again in the universe.”

D.H. Lawrence book Lady Chatterley's Lover

Source: Lady Chatterley's Lover

Tree, Universe

“I guess one of the great agonies of life is that we are constantly trying to finish that which is unfinishable”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Source: The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Life

“He took one look at me and said, ‘Damn, you cleaned up better than I thought you would.’ (Grace)
I worry about the men of your time, Grace. They all seem to be great fools. (Julian)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon Fantasy Lover

Source: Fantasy Lover

Men, Fools, Time

“I seem to have run in a great circle, and met myself again on the starting line.”

Jeanette Winterson book Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Source: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

“I have been seized by the power of a great affection.”

Brennan Manning book The Ragamuffin Gospel

p. 181 https://books.google.com/books?id=sUTZCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA181 <br class="br">1990s, The Ragamuffin Gospel (1990) <br class="br">Source: The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out

“And exactly how old are you MacRieve?"
"Twelve hundreds, give or take."
"Great Hekate, you're a relic. Don't you have a museum exhibit to be in somewhere?”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Dark Needs at Night's Edge

“How fortunate it was for the world that when these great trials came upon it there was a generation that terror could not conquer and brutal violence could not enslave.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

World