This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
Alphonse de Lamartine, fully Alphonse Marie Louis de Lamartine
True greatness is sovereign wisdom. We are never deceived by our virtues.
Alphonse de Lamartine, fully Alphonse Marie Louis de Lamartine
The greatness of a popular character is less according to the ratio of his genius than the sympathy he shows with the prejudices and even the absurdities of his time. Fanatics do not select the cleverest, but the most fanatical leaders.
The beginning of greatness is to be little, the increase of greatness is to be less, and the perfection of greatness is to be nothing.
Beginning | Greatness | Little | Nothing | Perfection |
Elizabeth Bowen, Full name Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen
All your youth you want to have your greatness taken for granted; when you find it taken for granted, you are unnerved.
Friedrich Nietzsche, fully Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Of what is great, one must either be silent, or speak with greatness - that means cynically and with innocence.
Friedrich Nietzsche, fully Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
The man of belief is necessarily a dependent man... He does not belong to himself, but to the author of the idea he believes... At every step, one has to wrestle for truth; one has to surrender to it almost everything to which the heart, to which our love, our trust in life clings otherwise. That requires greatness of soul: the service of truth is the hardest service...faith makes blessed: consequently, it lies.
Belief | Greatness | Life | Life | Man | Service | Surrender | Trust | Truth |
By constant self-discipline and self-control you can develop greatness of character.
To adore, to understand, to receive, to feel, to give, to act: there is my law my duty, my happiness, my heaven. Let come what come will—even death. Only be at peace with self, live in the presence of God, in communion with Him, and leave the guidance of existence to those universal powers against whom thou canst do nothing! If death gives me time, so much the better. If its summons is near, so much the better still; if a half-death overtake me, still so much the better, for so the path of success is closed to me only that I may find opening before me the path of heroism, of moral greatness and resignation. Every life has its potentiality of greatness, and as it is impossible to be outside God, the best is consciously to dwell in Him.
Better | Death | Existence | Greatness | Guidance | Law | Life | Life | Peace | Success | Guidance |
H. G. Wells, fully Herbert George Wells
They may fight against greatness in us who are the children of men, but can they conquer? Even if they should destroy us every one, what then? Would it save them? No! For greatness is abroad, not only in us, not only in the Food, but in the purpose of all things! It is in the nature of all things, it is part of space and time. To grow and still to grow, from first to last that is Being, that is the law of life. What other law can there be?
Children | Destroy | Greatness | Law | Nature | Purpose | Purpose | Space |
I want to understand what, precisely, it is in ourselves that prevents great truth from penetrating into our lives and therefore which prevents us from acting ethically in the only real sense of the word. Ethically means acting and being in the service of what is the true greatness of oneself as Man. I've studied many aspects of our culture from this perspective - science, education, medicine, religion. But now I see that in our society, in our world, it is our relation to money that needs to be understood. If great truth does not enter into our relation to money, it cannot enter our lives.
Culture | Greatness | Means | Money | Sense | Service | Truth | Understand |
A community is only being created when its members accept that they are not going to achieve great things, that they are not going to be heroes, but simply live each day with new hope, like children, in wonderment as the sun rises and in thanksgiving as it sets. Community is only being created when they have recognized that the greatness of man is to accept his insignificance, his human condition and his earth, and to thank God for having put in a finite body the seeds of eternity which are visible in small and daily gestures of love and forgiveness. The beauty of man is in this fidelity to the wonder of each day.
Beauty | Body | Day | Eternity | Fidelity | God | Greatness | Love | Man | Wonder | Beauty | God |
The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.
Greatness | Leadership |
The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.
Greatness | Leadership |
John Steinbeck, fully John Ernst Steinbeck
It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him.
John Steinbeck, fully John Ernst Steinbeck
The writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit - for gallantry in defeat - for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally-flags of hope and of emulation.
Capacity | Compassion | Defeat | Greatness | Heart | Hope | Spirit | War | Weakness |