Quotes about greatness
page 70

Donald J. Trump photo

“I'm going to make our country rich again. I am going to turn our bad trade agreements into great ones.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2010s, 2016, July, 2016 Republican National Convention (21 July 2016)

Keshia Chante photo

“My life is great because I made it that way. Anything other than happiness doesn't get a pass key.”

Keshia Chante (1988) Canadian actor and musician

Official Website (2009)

Robert Graves photo
Herrick Johnson photo
Francis Bacon photo

“Like strawberry wives, that laid two or three great strawberries at the mouth of their pot, and all the rest were little ones.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

No. 54
Apophthegms (1624)

Patrick Pearse photo

“And let us make no mistake as to what Tone sought to do, what it remains to us to do. We need to restate our programme: Tone has stated it for us:
"To break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils, and to assert the independence of my country—these were my objects. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissentions, and to substitute the common name of Irishmen in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter—these were my means."
I find here implicit all the philosophy of Irish nationalism, all the teaching of the Gaelic League and the later prophets. Ireland one and Ireland free—is not this the definition of Ireland a Nation? To that definition and to that programme we declare our adhesion anew; pledging ourselves as Tone pledged himself—and in this sacred place, by this graveside, let us not pledge ourselves unless we mean to keep our pledge—we pledge ourselves to follow in the steps of Tone, never to rest either by day or night until his work be accomplished, deeming it the proudest of all privileges to fight for freedom, to fight not in despondency but in great joy hoping for the victory in our day, but fighting on whether victory seem near or far, never lowering our ideal, never bartering one jot or tittle of our birthright, holding faith to the memory and the inspiration of Tone, and accounting ourselves base as long as we endure the evil thing against which he testified with his blood.”

Patrick Pearse (1879–1916) Irish revolutionary, shot by the British Army in 1916

Address delivered at the Grave of Wolfe Tone in Bodenstown Churchyard, Co. Kildare, 22 June 1913

Gustav Stresemann photo

“Let us celebrate Bismarck's memory by making the great idea of his life, devotion to the Fatherland, the guiding star of our own lives. Each of us in the place where he can do his best work. Each of us is responsible for helping the country rise again to that greatness for which Bismarck, who also knew an Olmuetz, prepared the way.”

Gustav Stresemann (1878–1929) German politician, statesman, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate

Speech (1 April 1928), quoted in W. M. Knight-Patterson, Germany. From Defeat to Conquest 1913-1933 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1945), p. 417
1920s

Gloria Estefan photo
Alexis De Tocqueville photo

“He was as great as a man can be without morality.”

Alexis De Tocqueville (1805–1859) French political thinker and historian

Said of Napoleon (1842), "Discours de réception a L'Académie Française prononcé le 21 Avril 1842" Oeuvres complètes, vol. IX, p. 17 http://books.google.com/books?id=kIsdAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA17&dq=%22Il+%C3%A9tait+aussi+grand+qu%E2%80%99un+homme+puisse+l%E2%80%99%C3%AAtre+sans+la+vertu%22
Original text :
Il était aussi grand qu'un homme puisse l'être sans la vertu.
1840s

Wendell Berry photo
Helen Keller photo
Isaac D'Israeli photo

“The poet and the painter are only truly great by the mutual influences of their studies, and the jealousy of glory has only produced an idle contest.”

Isaac D'Israeli (1766–1848) British writer

Source: The Literary Character, Illustrated by the History of Men of Genius (1795–1822), Ch. III.

Derren Brown photo

“This week, we’re in Whitby on the North-east coast where my great-uncle, Count Dracula, first touched British soil in the shape of a big dog.”

Derren Brown (1971) British illusionist

TV Series and Specials (Includes DVDs), Trick of the Mind (2004–2006)

Henry Morgenthau, Sr. photo
Vincent Massey photo

“The great menace of civilization in the present is that we offer an education with too little regard for the roots.”

Vincent Massey (1887–1967) Governor General of Canada

Address at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, March 7, 1953
Speaking Of Canada - (1959)

Sri Aurobindo photo
Rahm Emanuel photo

“With Rahm, you get someone who is both a great strategic thinker and a great tactician. It's great to have someone who knows the Congress inside and out. There can often be major differences between the executive branch and the congressional branch, even when you're from the same party. It will certainly help in terms of getting things done.”

Rahm Emanuel (1959) politician, investment banker, White House Chief of Staff

Chris Van Hollen, quoted in San Francisco Chronicle http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/06/MN6C13VKH5.DTL&type=politics.
About

Alexander Ovechkin photo

“Alex, you just enjoy watching because he's like a bull in a china shop. And he does everything. He's got all the great skills, and he can run over you as well.”

Alexander Ovechkin (1985) Russian ice hockey player

Bruce Boudreau, interview in Jill Painter (November 20, 2008) "The Pursuit of Happiness: Whether On or Off the Ice, Washington's Ovechkin Always Enjoys Himself", Los Angeles Daily News, p. C1.
About

Haruo Nakajima photo

“Mr. Kurosawa would spend an entire day filming one shot. None of the other directors with whom I worked would do that. Working with Mr. Kurosawa was like working on a play instead of a movie. We would spend a great deal of time rehearsing. It was torturous.”

Haruo Nakajima (1929–2017) Japanese actor

As quoted by David Milner, "Haruo Nakajima Interview" http://www.davmil.org/www.kaijuconversations.com/nakajima.htm, Kaiju Conversations (March 1995)

John Mackey (businessman) photo

“I remember one day in August of 2003 I made the decision to become (near) vegan and that once the decision was made I felt great emotional alignment within my heart. I knew this was the right thing for me to do and I also knew that I was making a decision that I would be committed to for the rest of my life. At last my beliefs and my ethics had come into alignment.”

John Mackey (businessman) (1953) is an American businessman. He is the current CEO of Whole Foods Market

Told to Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, as quoted in Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About Food (New York: Norton & Company, 2009. ISBN 978-0-393-06595-4), Introduction, p. 15 https://books.google.it/books?id=-LeUV2wr2BoC&pg=PA15.

Nicholas Lore photo
Robert Menzies photo
Charles Taze Russell photo
Louis Althusser photo
Khushwant Singh photo
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi photo
André Malraux photo

“One can like that the meaning of the word "art" is to try to make men aware of the greatness that they ignore in them.”

André Malraux (1901–1976) French novelist, art theorist and politician

André Malraux, Préface du Temps du mépris (1935), Malraux citations sur www. fondationandremalraux. org http://fondationandremalraux.org/index.php/citations/

“The notion that you need animal food as protein is one of the great conspiracies of bullshit by the government. Did we not all grow up saying we had to have four glasses of whole milk a day for healthy bones? It’s ridiculous. It’s liquid cholesterol.”

"Steve Wynn: Viva Las Vegan", interview with the Las Vegas Weekly (4 November 2010) https://lasvegasweekly.com/dining/2010/nov/04/steve-wynn-viva-las-vegan/.

Nikolai Berdyaev photo
Maggie Gyllenhaal photo
Gordon B. Hinckley photo
Alexander Ovechkin photo

“I don't want to play for a no-good team. I want to win. I want to be on a good team like we see right now. We have great young guys. We have great experienced guys. Everything goes up.”

Alexander Ovechkin (1985) Russian ice hockey player

Bill Beacon (January 29, 2008) "Backstrom, Ovechkin combination promises bright future for Capitals", The Canadian Press.

Whittaker Chambers photo
Robert Maynard Hutchins photo
Kim Jong-il photo

“Karl Marx made a great contribution to the liberation cause of mankind, and because of his immortal exploits his name is still enshrined in the hearts of the working class and peoples of all countries.”

Kim Jong-il (1941–2011) General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea

Rodong Sinmun (25 December 1995) "Respecting the forerunners of the revolution is a noble moral obligation of revolutionaries" http://www.korea-dpr.com/library/206.pdf

Brandon Boyd photo
Robert G. Ingersoll photo
H.L. Mencken photo
Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex photo

“And shall I name one who hath been in our age, and wish him now to live to cure so great a canker? Would God England had a Cromwell: I will say no more.”

Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex (1485–1540) English statesman and chief minister to King Henry VIII of England

Thomas Wilson, Discourse on Usury (1571), p. 182.
About

Trinny Woodall photo

“We absolutely love women, we are passionate about what we do and we get great results. Women see that our rules are manageable and make a real difference. I don't think we are being bossy, no one is forced to follow the rules.”

Trinny Woodall (1964) English fashion advisor and designer, television presenter and author

As quoted in "Mistresses of the makeover" by Cathrin Schaer in New Zealand Herald http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=182&objectid=10493332&pnum=2 (25 February 2008)

Maria Mitchell photo

“Only a distinctive individual can produce great art. Great art is synonymous with anonymous art.”

Fritz Wotruba (1907–1975) Austrian sculptor (23 April 1907, Vienna – 28 August 1975, Vienna)

Source: The Human Form: Sculpture, Prints, and Drawings, 1977, p. 73.

Dean Acheson photo
Eric Schmidt photo

“We have always been the leader in security and in encryption. Our systems are far more secure and encrypted than anyone else, including Apple. They're catching up, which is great.”

Eric Schmidt (1955) software engineer, businessman

Eric Schmidt says Google 'far more secure' than Apple, denies allegations of harvesting data http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/10/02/eric-schmidt-says-google-far-more-secure-than-apple-denies-allegations-of-harvesting-data in AppleInsider (2 October 2014).

Firuz Shah Tughlaq photo

“Firuz Shah Tughlaq organised an industry out of catching slaves. Shams-i-Siraj Afif writes in his Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi: “The Sultan commanded his great fief-holders and officers to capture slaves whenever they were at war (that is, suppressing Hindu rebellions), and to pick out and send the best for the service of the court. The chiefs and officers naturally exerted themselves in procuring more and more slaves and a great number of them were thus collected. When they were found to be in excess, the Sultan sent them to important cities… It has been estimated that in the city and in the various fiefs, there were 1,80,000 slaves… The Sultan created a separate department with a number of officers for administering the affairs of these slaves.”. Firuz Shah beat all previous records in his treatment of the Hindus… He records another instance in which Hindus who had built new temples were butchered before the gate of his palace, and their books, images, and vessels of Worship were publicly burnt. According to him “this was a warning to all men that no zimmi could follow such wicked practices in a Musulman country”. Afif reports yet another case in which a Brahmin of Delhi was accused of “publicly performing idol-worship in his house and perverting Mohammedan women leading them to become infidels”. The Brahmin “was tied hand and foot and cast into a burning pile of faggots.””

Firuz Shah Tughlaq (1309–1388) Tughluq sultan

The historian who witnessed this scene himself expresses his satisfaction by saying, “Behold the Sultan’s strict adherence to law and rectitude, how he would not deviate in the least from its decrees.”
Quoted from Goel, Sita Ram (2001). The story of Islamic imperialism in India. ISBN 9788185990231

“I must needs say my judgement was for the Parliament, as the King's, and Kingdom's, great and safest Council.”

"Short Memorials of some things to be cleared during my Command in the Army [1645 to 1650 A.D.]", in Stuart Tracts 1603–1693, ed. C. H. Frith, p. 353

Joseph Addison photo

“Great Pompey's shade complains that we are slow,
And Scipio's ghost walks unavenged amongst us!”

Act II, scene i.
Cato, A Tragedy (1713)

Charles Dibdin photo

“For a soldier I listed, to grow great in fame.
And be shot at for sixpence a day.”

Charles Dibdin (1745–1814) British musician, songwriter, dramatist, novelist and actor

Letters (c. 1774).

Edward Jenks photo

“But we remember that it was just precisely in the reign of Richard II that the Peasants' War, following upon the changes wrought by the visitations of the Great Plague, virtually destroyed serfdom as a personal status.”

Edward Jenks (1861–1939) British legal scholar

Source: A Short History Of The English Law (First Edition) (1912), Chapter VI, Triumph Of The King's Courts, p. 72

Robert Maynard Hutchins photo
Horatius Bonar photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
Robert Maynard Hutchins photo
Francesco Guicciardini photo

“We fight to great disadvantage when we fight with those who have nothing to lose.”

Francesco Guicciardini (1483–1540) Italian writer, historian and politician

Con disavvantaggio grande si fa la guerra con chi non ha che perdere.
Storia d' Italia (1537-1540)

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Edward St. Aubyn photo
Michelle Pfeiffer photo
James Hudson Taylor photo

“I am in great straits for funds. I am happy about it. The Lord may take away all our troublesome people through it and give us true-hearted ones instead.”

James Hudson Taylor (1832–1905) Missionary in China

(A.J. Broomhall. Hudson Taylor and China’s Open Century, Book Six: Assault on the Nine. London: Hodder and Stoughton and Overseas Missionary Fellowship, 1988, 296).

Honoré de Balzac photo

“It is the mark of a great man that he puts to flight all ordinary calculations. He is at once sublime and touching, childlike and of the race of giants.”

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) French writer

Le propre d’un grand homme est de dérouter les calculs ordinaires. Il est sublime et attendrissant, naïf et gigantesque.
Part I, ch. XV.
Letters of Two Brides (1841-1842)

George Moore (novelist) photo

“The world is dying of machinery; that is the great disease, that is the plague that will sweep away and destroy civilization; man will have to rise against it sooner or later.”

George Moore (novelist) (1852–1933) Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist

Source: Confessions of a Young Man http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12278/12278-h/12278-h.htm (1886), Ch. 7.

Anthony Burgess photo
Bertolt Brecht photo

“Little changes are the enemies of great changes.”

Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) German poet, playwright, theatre director

"Quotation" [Zitat] (1930s), trans. Michael Morley in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 277
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)

Halldór Laxness photo
Oliver Wendell Holmes photo

“I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it,—but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) Poet, essayist, physician

Josephus Daniels, ambassador to Mexico, sent this quotation to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, January 1, 1936, in a note of New Year greetings, with this comment: "Here is an expression from Holmes which, if it has missed you, is so good you may find a use for it in one of your 'fireside' talks". Reported in Carroll Kilpatrick, ed., Roosevelt and Daniels (1952), p. 159.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858)

Henry Van Dyke photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
Pliny the Elder photo
William Burges photo

“Allowing, therefore, the great usefulness of the Government Schools, the Exhibitions, and the Museums both public and private, the question now arises as to what are the impediments to our future progress. The principal ones appear to me to be three.
# A want of a distinctive architecture, which is fatal to art generally.
# The want of a good costume, which is fatal to colour; and
# The want of a sufficient teaching of the figure, which is fatal to art in detail.
It will perhaps be as well to take these one by one.
The most fatal impediment of the three is undeniably the want of a distinctive architecture in the nineteenth century. Architecture is commonly called the mother of all the other arts, and these latter are all more or less affected by it in their details. In almost every age of the world except our own only one style of architecture has been in use, and consequently only one set of details. The designer had accordingly to master, 1. the figure, and the great principles of ornament; 2. those details of the architecture then practised which were necessary to his trade; and 3. the technical processes. Now what is the case in the present day? If we take a walk in the streets of London we may see at least half-a-dozen sorts of architecture, all with different details; and if we go to a museum we shall find specimens of the furniture, jewellery, &c., of these said different styles all beautifully classed and labelled. The student, instead of confining himself to one style as in former times, is expected to be master of all these said half-dozen, which is just as reasonable as asking him to write half-a-dozen poems in half-a-dozen languages, carefully preserving the idiomatic peculiarities of each. This we all know to be an impossibility, and the end is that our student, instead of thoroughly applying the principles of ornament to one style, is so bewildered by having the half-dozen on his hands, that he ends by knowing none of them as he ought to do. This is the case in almost every trade; and until the question of style gets gets settled, it is utterly hopeless to think about any great improvement in modern art.”

William Burges (1827–1881) English architect

Source: Art applied to industry: a series of lectures, 1865, p. 8-9; Partly cited in: Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. Vol. 99. 1951. p. 520

Paul Klee photo

“Am I God? / I have accumulated so many great things in me! / My head aches to the point of bursting. / It has to hold an overview of power. / May you want (are you worthy of it?) / that it be born to you.”

Paul Klee (1879–1940) German Swiss painter

Quote (1905), # 690, in The Diaries of Paul Klee, translation: Pierre B. Schneider, R. Y. Zachary and Max Knight; publisher, University of California Press, 1964
1903 - 1910

Robert G. Ingersoll photo
Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Paula Modersohn-Becker photo

“There are great many Rembrandts here [in Paris]. Even if they are yellow with varnish, I can still learn so much from them, the wrinkled intricacy of things, life itself. There is a little thing here by him.... It is of a women in bed, nude. But the way it's painted, the way the cushions are painted, their shapes, with all those details of lacework, the whole thing is bewitching.”

Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876–1907) German artist

In a letter to her husband Otto Modersohn, from Boulevard Raspail 203, Paris, 18 February 1903; as quoted in Paula Modersohn-Becker – The Letters and Journals, ed: Günther Busch & Lotten von Reinken; (transl, A. Wensinger & C. Hoey; Taplinger); Publishing Company, New York, 1983, p. 297
1900 - 1905

Davy Crockett photo

“Money with them is nothing but trash when it is to come out of the people. But it is the one great thing for which most of them are striving, and many of them sacrifice honor, integrity, and justice to obtain it.”

Davy Crockett (1786–1836) American politician

Comment to a friend about the US Congress, as quoted in The Life of Colonel David Crockett (1884) by Edward Sylvester Ellis.

Colin Wilson photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
William Ellery Channing photo
Clement Attlee photo
George William Curtis photo
David Lloyd George photo
Neal Stephenson photo
Winston S. Churchill photo
Eduard Bernstein photo

“The fact of the modern national States or empires not having originated organically does not prevent their being organs of that great entity which we call civilised humanity, and which is much too extensive to be included in any single State. And, indeed, these organs are at present necessary and of great importance for human development. On this point Socialists can scarcely differ now. And it is not even to be regretted, from the Socialist point of view, that they are not characterised purely by their common descent. The purely ethnological national principle is reactionary in its results. Whatever else one may think about the race-problem, it is certain that the thought of a national division of mankind according to race is anything rather than a human ideal. The national quality is developing on the contrary more and more into a sociological function. But understood as such it is a progressive principle, and in this sense Socialism can and must be national. This is no contradiction of the cosmopolitan consciousness, but only its necessary completion, The world-citizenship, this glorious attainment of civilisation, would, if the relationship to national tasks and rational duties were missing, become a flabby characterless parasitism. Even when we sing "Ubi bene, ibi patria," we still acknowledge a "patria," and, therefore, in accordance with the motto, "No rights without duties"; also duties towards her.”

Eduard Bernstein (1850–1932) German politician

Bernstein, Eduard. "Patriotism, Militarism and Social-Democracy." (Originally published as: "Militarism." Social Democrat. Vol.11 no.7, 15 July 1907, pp.413-419.) http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bernstein/works/1907/07/patriotism.htm

Nayef Al-Rodhan photo
John Turner photo

“I'm not going to allow Mr. Mulroney to sell out our birthright, I'm not going to let Mr. Mulroney destroy a great 120 year old dream called Canada.”

John Turner (1929) 17th Prime Minister of Canada

repeated comment during 1988 Federal Election campaign in opposition to the Free Trade Agreement.( http://archives.cbc.ca/programs/730-6569/page/5/)

Thomas Carlyle photo
Gavin Douglas photo
Rakesh Khurana photo

“The development, strengthening and multiplication of socially minded businessmen is the central problem of business. Moreover, it is one of the great problems of civilization. Our objective, therefore, should be the multiplication of men who will handle their current business problems in socially constructive ways.”

Rakesh Khurana (1967) American business academic

Rakesh Khurana (2010). From higher aims to hired hands: The social transformation of American business schools and the unfulfilled promise of management as a profession. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 27

Charles Lyell photo
Constantine P. Cavafy photo