Quotes about greatness

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

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

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

“Great difficulties may be surmounted by patience and 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…”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

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

“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.”

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

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

“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?”

“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?”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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”

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

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

“To be great is to be misunderstood.”

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

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“Oh great. Yoda captured us.”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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)”

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

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

“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?”

“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.”

“Monty Python: A documentary series on everyday life in Great Britain.”

“A little artist has all the tragic unhappiness and the sorrows of a great artist and he is not a great artist.”

“If anyone else asked that question, O He Who Is Terrible and Great, I would have said they were an ignorant fool; in you it is a sign of the disarming simplicity which is the fount of all virtue.”

“You have everything," she said slowly, as if she were explaining the order of the world to a small child. "A family, a great job, a lot of people who look up to you. You've got a place to go home to." She smiled a little. "So go.”

“The business of the novelist is not to relate great events, but to make small ones interesting.”

“The small things of life were often so much bigger than the great things, she decided, wondering how many writers and philosophers had said this before her, the trivial pleasures like cooking, one's home, little poems especially sad ones, solitary walks, funny things seen and overheard.”

“The chief proof of man's real greatness lies in his perception of his own smallness.”

“The night below. We two. Crystal of pain.
You wept over great distances.
My ache was a clutch of agonies
over your sickly heart of sand.”

“But I think she would have been happy with Fabrice,' I said. 'He was the great love of her life, you know.'
Oh, dulling,' said my mother, sadly. 'One always thinks that. Every, every time.”

“I am a great husband because I am very afraid she may kill me.”

“Most people think everybody feels about them much more violently than they actually do; they think other people's opinions of them swing through great arcs of approval or disapproval.”

“Amazing what the British do with language; the nuances of politeness. The world's great diplomats, surely.”

“Mother,” Hyacinth said with a great show of solicitude,
“you know I love you dearly—”
“Why is it,” Violet pondered, “that I have come to expect
nothing good when I hear a sentence beginning in
that manner?”

“Scatter?' Tate said. 'Why? We stay here. Why go anywhere else?'
'Because we'll never know how great this place is until we leave it,' Narnie said.”

“No sacrifice which a lover would make for his beloved is too great for us to make for our enemy.”

“Great books are the ones we need”

“It's not fair."

"It's not. But then, that's the game. It makes life great. The fact that it ends when we don't want it to. The ending gives it meaning.”

“He would write it for the reason he felt that all great literature, fiction and nonfiction, was written: truth comes out, in the end it always comes out. He would write it because he felt he had to.”

“Don’t let the past ruin your future. (Acheron)
Meaning what, oh great Yoda? (Kyrian)
You take care of the kid. I’ll take care of your patrol tonight. I could use the target practice. (Acheron)”

“The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.”

“Great people have great egos; maybe that's what makes them great.”

“If I understand Change, I shall make no great mistake in Life”

“What we lose in our great human exodus from the land is a rooted sense, as deep and intangible as religious faith, of why we need to hold on to the wild and beautiful places that once surrounded us.”

“You see gods have great power, but only humans have creativity, the power to change history rather than simply repeat it. Humans can… how do you moderns say it… think outside the cup.”

“In great hearts the cruelty of life gives birth to good.”

“Some men […] choose to seek greatness, while others are forced to it. It is always better to choose than to be forced.
A man who is forced is never completely his own master. He must dance on the strings of those who forced him.”

“She never said, "No, don't buy that trash," or "Pick a real book." She knew they were all real books. This is how great a librarian she was. And how great a mom.”

“My feet will tread soft as a deer in the forest. My mind will be clear as water from the sacred well. My heart will be strong as a great oak. My spirit will spread an eagle's wings, and fly forth.”

“There is no rest for the humble except in despising the great, whose only thought of the people is inspired by self-interest or sadism.”

“Back in the time when life was easy, the Internet would have told me what I needed to know. The great thing about the Internet was it didn't care why you were asking.”

“You, know I'm the Queen's favorite great nephew, Well, yeah I'm her only great nephew, but that's not important, I'd still be her favorite…”

“I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find we are turned to hating.”

“One's duty is to feel what is great, cherish the beautiful, and to not accept the conventions of society with the ignominy that it imposes upon us.”

“In order to acquire a growing and lasting respect in society, it is a good thing, if you possess great talent, to give, early in your youth, a very hard kick to the right shin of the society that you love. After that, be a snob.”

“Myrnin: "There is no drama so great as that of a teenage girl."
Claire: "Except yours.”

“I reached over and squeezed Curran’s hand. “Come on, you, me, a platter of barely seared meat, it will be great. If we see the navigators, we can make fun of the way they hold their forks.”

“When I first arrived in London, I so quickly tired of being surrounded by so many people that it was only with great difficulty that I refrained from seizing the next unfortunate who crossed my path and committing violent acts upon their person.”

“The ghostly winter silence had given way to the great spring murmur of awakening life.”