“With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.”
Greatness is not reserved for a select few. These quotes explore what it takes to do exceptional work, live with purpose, and push past mediocrity — not through talent alone, but through persistence, vision, and the refusal to settle.
“Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.”
“With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.”
“We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.”
“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.”
“I have great hopes that we shall love each other all our lives as much as if we had never married at all.”
“The great tragedy of science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.”
“There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.”
“Before we acquire great power we must acquire wisdom to use it well.”
“Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.”
“A great fortune is a great slavery.”
“Great minds are to make others great. Their superiority is to be used, not to break the multitude to intellectual vassalage, not to establish over them a spiritual tyranny, but to rouse them from lethargy, and to aid them to judge for themselves.”
“Laws control the lesser man... Right conduct controls the greater one.”
“Harmony makes small things grow, lack of it makes great things decay.”
“Great acts are made up of small deeds.”
“The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.”
“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”