Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources. Rev. James Wood
near us; ordinary men gain much. Landor.
Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them, / But in the less, foul profanation. Meas. for Meas., ii. 2.
Great men need to be lifted upon the shoulders of the whole world, in order to conceive their great ideas or perform their great deeds; that is, there must be an atmosphere of greatness round about them. A hero cannot be a hero unless in a heroic world. Hawthorne.
Great men not only know their business, but they usually know that they know it, and are not only right in their main opinions, but they usually know that they are right in them. Ruskin.
Great men oft die by vile Bezonians. 2 Hen. VI., iv. 1.
Great men often rejoice at crosses of fortune, 25 just as brave soldiers do at wars. Sen.
Great men or men of great gifts you will easily find, but symmetrical men never. Emerson.
Great men, said Themistocles, are like the oaks, under the branches of which men are happy in finding a refuge in the time of storm and rain; but when they have to pass a sunny day under them, they take pleasure in cutting the bark and breaking the branches. Goethe.
Great men should drink with harness on their throats. Tim. of Athens, i. 2.
Great men should think of opportunity, and not of time. Time is the excuse of feeble and puzzled spirits. Disraeli.
Great men stand like solitary towers in the 30 city of God, and secret passages running deep beneath external Nature give their thoughts intercourse with higher intelligences, which strengthens and consoles them, and of which the labourers on the surface do not even dream. Longfellow.
Great men, though far above us, are felt to be our brothers; and their elevation shows us what vast possibilities are wrapped up in our common humanity. They beckon us up the gleaming heights to whose summits they have climbed. Their deeds are the woof of this world's history. Moses Harvey.
Great men too often have greater faults than little men can find room for. Landor.
Great men will always pay deference to greater. Landor.
Great minds erect their never-failing trophies on the firm base of mercy. Massinger.
Great minds had rather deserve contemporaneous 35 applause without obtaining it, than obtain without deserving it. Colton.
Great minds, like Heaven, are pleased in doing good, / Though the ungrateful subjects of their favours / Are barren in return. Rowe.
Great minds seek to labour for eternity. All other men are captivated by immediate advantages; great minds are excited by the prospect of distant good. Schiller.
Great names stand not alone for great deeds; they stand also for great virtues, and, doing them worship, we elevate ourselves. H. Giles.
Great part of human suffering has its root in the nature of man, and not in that of his institutions. Lowell.
Great passions are incurable diseases; the 40 very remedies make them worse. Goethe.
Great patriots must be men of great excellence; this alone can secure to them lasting admiration. H. Giles.
Great people and champions are special gifts of God, whom He gives and preserves; they do their work and achieve great actions, not with vain imaginations or cold and sleepy cogitations, but by motion of God. Luther.
Great pleasures are much less frequent than great pains. Hume.
Great poets are no sudden prodigies, but slow results. Lowell.
Great poets try to describe what all men see 45 and to express what all men feel; if they cannot describe it, they let it alone. Ruskin.
Great profits, great risks. Chinese Pr.
Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step. S. Smiles.
Great revolutions, whatever may be their causes, are not lightly commenced, and are not concluded with precipitation. Disraeli.
Great souls are always royally submissive, reverent to what is over them; only small, mean souls are otherwise. Carlyle.
Great souls are not cast down by adversity. Pr.
Great souls are not those which have less 5 passion and more virtue than common souls, but only those which have greater designs. La Roche.
Great souls attract sorrows as mountains do storms. But the thunder-clouds break upon them, and they thus form a shelter for the plains around. Jean Paul.
Great souls care only for what is great. Amiel.
Great souls endure in silence. Schiller.
Great souls forgive not injuries till time has put their enemies within their power, that they may show forgiveness is their own. Dryden.
Great spirits and great business do keep out 10 this weak passion (love). Bacon.
Great talents are rare, and they rarely recognise themselves. Goethe.
Great talents have some admirers, but few friends. Niebuhr.
Great talkers are like leaky pitchers, everything runs out of them. Pr.
Great talkers are little doers. Pr.
Great thieves hang little ones. Ger. 15
Great things are done when men and mountains meet; / These are not done by jostling in the street. Wm. Blake.
Great things through greatest hazards are achiev'd, / And then they shine. Beaumont.
Great thoughts and a pure heart are the things we should beg for ourselves from God. Goethe.
Great thoughts come from the heart. Vauvenargues.
Great thoughts, great feelings come to them, / 20 Like instincts, unawares. M. Milnes.
Great thoughts reduced to practice become great acts. Hazlitt.
Great towns are but a large sort of prison to the soul, like cages to birds or pounds to beasts. Charron.
Great warmth at first is the certain ruin of every great achievement. Doth not water, although ever so cool, moisten the earth? Hitopadesa.
Great warriors, like great earthquakes, are principally remembered for the mischief they have done. Bovee.
Great wealth, great care. Dut. Pr. 25
Great wits are sure to madness near allied, / And thin partitions do their bounds divide. Dryden.
Great wits to madness nearly are allied; / Both serve to make our poverty our pride. Emerson.
Great women belong to history and to self-sacrifice. Leigh Hunt.
Great works are performed, not by strength,