Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author
Source: Napoleon Hill's Positive Action Plan: 365 Meditations For Making Each Day a Success
Quotes about greatness page 27
Washington Irving book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
"Philip of Pokanoket : An Indian Memoir".
A more extensive statement not found as such in this work is attributed to Irving in Elbert Hubbard's Scrap Book (1923) edited by Roycroft Shop:
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819–1820)
Variant: Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.
Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist
Source: The Wisdom of the Heart (1951), "The Alcoholic Veteran with the Washboard Cranium", p. 122
“The outward work will never be puny if the inward work is great.”
Meister Eckhart (1260–1328) German theologian
Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian
Variant: The end of the world started when a Pegasus landed on the hood of my car.
Source: The Last Olympian
“You cannot fake effort; talent is great, but perseverance is necessary.”
Amy Bloom (1953) Fiction writer, screenwriter, social worker, psychotherapist
John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor
Source: The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth: Live Them and Reach Your Potential
“After all, the appeal to stop being yourself, even for a little while, is very great.”
Donna Tartt book The Secret History
Source: The Secret History
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel book Elements of the Philosophy of Right
Sect. 318, as translated by T. M. Knox, (1952)
Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820/1821)
“Books have great value, actions have greater value.”
Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer
Source: The Well of Ascension
T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)
Source: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems
Context: I am no prophet — and here's no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.
“In this world of gossip, a good listener is rarer than a great orator.”
Christopher Pike (1954) American author Kevin Christopher McFadden
Source: Black Blood
“… great things may come from moments of nothingness.”
Alexander McCall Smith book The Miracle at Speedy Motors
Source: The Miracle at Speedy Motors
“A great many men are mad, and no one knows it. They do not know it themselves”
Agatha Christie The Secret Adversary
Source: The Secret Adversary
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) English writer, artist, poet and illustrator
"Each Day I Live in a Glass Room," A Reverie of Bone and other Poems (1967)
“It must be a great disappointment to God if we are not dazzled at least ten times a day.”
Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer
Source: Blue Horses
Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …
“To be a woman is a great adventure;
To drive men mad is a heroic thing.”
Borís Pasternak book Doctor Zhivago
Source: Doctor Zhivago
Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer
Source: David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants
“Love is so unpredictable. That's what makes it so great.”
Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby
Source: This Lullaby
“You are not my high school crush, idiot.”
“Great. I can die happy, then.”
Rachel Caine book Glass Houses
Source: Glass Houses
“I must be a mermaid, Rango. I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.”
Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica
“Cleavage is great," she said. "Like an extra pocket.”
Kelley Armstrong book The Summoning
Source: The Summoning
“Those at too great a distance may, I am well aware, mistake ignorance for perspective.”
Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator
Introduction (p. 7)
The Dragons of Eden (1977)
Source: Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
“For your life to be great, your faith must be bigger than your fear.”
Robin S. Sharma (1965) Canadian self help writer
Source: The Saint, the Surfer, and the CEO: A Remarkable Story about Living Your Heart's Desires
Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo
Source: Magic Bleeds - Awake
“Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination.”
John Dewey (1859–1952) American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer
The Quest for Certainty (1929), Ch. XI
Misc. Quotes
Source: The Quest for Certainty: A Study of the Relation of Knowledge and Action
Sena Jeter Naslund (1942) American writer
Source: Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer
Edmund Crispin (1921–1978) British composer
Source: Beware of the Trains
Plutarch book Parallel Lives
Of Hearing, 6
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Source: Parallel Lives
Sherry Argov (1977) American writer
Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl—A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Self-Reliance
Source: Self Reliance
Context: A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
Zora Neale Hurston book Their Eyes Were Watching God
C. 2, p. 10.
Source: Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary
Variant: Let me say, at the risk of seeming ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.
Mortimer J. Adler (1902–2001) American philosopher and educator
Source: How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading
Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)
Letter #158 to Theo (24 September 1880) http://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let158/letter.html <!-- This letter has slightly different translations everywhere, but this seems to be the more often quoted translation --><br> Variant translation http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/8/136.htm: "I felt my energy revive and I said to myself, I shall get over it somehow, I shall set to work again with my pencil, which I had cast aside in my deep dejection, and I shall draw again, and from that moment I have had the feeling that everything has changed for me" <br class="br">1880s, 1880 <br class="br">Context: I felt my energy revive, and said to myself, In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing. From that moment everything has seemed transformed for me.
“The play was a great success, but audience was a dismal failure.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright
Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay
Katniss and Plutarch Heavensbee (p. 379)
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay (2010)
Context: “Are you preparing for another war, Plutarch?” I ask.
“Oh, not now. Now we’re in that sweet period where everyone agrees that our recent horrors should never be repeated,” he says. “But collective thinking is usually short-lived. We’re fickle, stupid beings with a great gift for self-destruction. Although who knows? Maybe this will be it, Katniss.”
“What?” I ask.
“The time it sticks. Maybe we are witnessing the evolution of the human race. Think about that.“
“The great advantage about telling the truth is that nobody ever believes it.”
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) English crime writer, playwright, essayist and Christian writer
Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian
Source: It's Called a Breakup Because It's Broken: The Smart Girl's Break-Up Buddy
“The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.”
William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist
Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet
Source: Moby-Dick or, The Whale
Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer
Source: (1962), Ch. 3 The Control of Money, p. 50
Kerrelyn Sparks (1955) American writer
Source: How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire
Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer
Source: A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living
Patrick Lencioni (1965) American writer
Source: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books
Yertle the Turtle (1958)
Source: Yertle the Turtle and Gertrude McFuzz
“He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer
Ansel Adams (1902–1984) American photographer and environmentalist
"A Personal Credo" (1943), published in American Annual of Photography (1944), reprinted in Nathan Lyons, editor, Photographers on Photography (1966), reprinted in Vicki Goldberg, editor, Photography in Print: Writings from 1816 to the Present (1988)
Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books
Yertle the Turtle (1958)
Matthew Reilly (1974) Australian author
Source: Seven Deadly Wonders
Jane Green (1968) British writer
Source: Straight Talking