Great Men Quotes - Page 29

• To be misunderstood even by those whom one loves is the cross and bitterness of life. It is the secret of that sad and melancholy smile on the lips of great men which so few understand; it is the cruelest trial reserved for self-devotion; it is what must have oftenest wrung the heart of the Son of man; and if God could suffer, it would be the wound we should be forever inflicting upon Him. He also - He above all - is the great misunderstood, the least comprehended.

  Henri Frederic Amiel

  Heart, Son, Love Is

  Entry for May 27, 1849, "The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel", Book by Henri-Frédéric Amiel, translated by Mary Augusta Ward, 1882.

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• I distrust Great Men... I believe in aristocracy, though... Its members are to be found in all nations and classes, and all through the ages, and there is a secret understanding between them when they meet... They are sensitive for others as well as for themselves, they are considerate without being fussy, their pluck is not swankiness but the power to endure, and they can take a joke.

  E. M. Forster

  Believe, Men, Class

  "What I Believe". Essay by E. M. Forster, 1938.

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• New Year, the season for changes in positions and advances in salaries, approaches. If you have in your employ some who deserve more salary, do not compel them to go through the unpleasant ordeal of asking a raise, but, rather, voluntarily increase their remuneration. A raise that comes from the boss without asking is worth a lot more than one that has to be gouged out of him. Is it not true that a great many employers who would not dream of overcharging their customers have no qualms whatever about underpaying their employees if the latter will submit without protest?

  B. C. Forbes

  Dream, New Year, Deserve More

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• Great men in teaching weak men to reflect have set them on the road to error.

  Luc de Clapiers

  Teaching, Men, Weak Man

  Jean de La Bruyère, Luc de Clapiers marquis de Vauvenargues (1903). “La Bruyère and Vauvenargues: Selections from the Characters, Reflexions and Maxims”

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• Great men are sometimes so even in small things.

  Luc de Clapiers

  Men, Sometimes, Small Things

  Jean de La Bruyère, Luc de Clapiers marquis de Vauvenargues (1903). “La Bruyère and Vauvenargues: Selections from the Characters, Reflexions and Maxims”

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• The truly great man is as apt to forgive as his power is able to revenge.

  Philip Sidney

  Forgiveness, Revenge, Men

  Sir Philip Sidney, Jane Porter (1807). “Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks”, p.54

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• A great many political speeches are literary parricides; they kill their fathers.

  George D. Prentice

  Father, Political, Speech

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• Pennsylvania, the state that has produced two great men: Benjamin Franklin of Massachusetts, and Albert Gallatin of Switzerland.

  John James Ingalls

  Men, Two, Switzerland

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• In the popular arena, one can tell ... that the average man ... imagines that an industrious acquisition of particulars will render him a man of knowledge. With what pathetic trust does he recite his facts! He has been told that knowledge is power, and knowledge consists of a great many small things.

  Richard M. Weaver

  Men, Average, Doe

  Richard M. Weaver (2013). “Ideas Have Consequences”, p.13, University of Chicago Press

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• Nature never rhymes her children, nor makes two men alike. When we see a great man, we fancy a resemblance to some historical person, and predict the sequel of his character and fortune, a result which he is sure to disappoint. None will ever solve the problem of his character according to our prejudice, but only in his high unprecedented way.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Leadership, Children, Character

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.505, Library of America

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• When I was at Manchester, where there was a modern swimming pool, I was looked on as a great man, not for so trivial a reason as being an FRS, but because I used to dive off a five-metre board.

  Louis J. Mordell

  Swimming, Men, Boards

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• I think football management has obviously changed and evolved in terms of practices and methods, but I would say the values we strive to hold are the same as great men like Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley.

  Brendan Rodgers

  Football, Men, Thinking

  Source: bleacherreport.com

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• I think the reason why I'm so alluring to networks is because on the surface I'm like a quintessential relatable, boring white guy. A great many sitcoms have been anchored by a boring white guy, so I feel like what they want to mine from me are my more generic qualities.

  Mike Birbiglia

  Thinking, White, Guy

  Source: www.esquire.com

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• Famous crime stories almost always lead to the passing of new laws. There's a great many intersections between this unseemly tabloid phenomena and serious social issues and we never get to that intersection because serious people don't like to talk about that unattractive stuff.

  Bill James

  Law, Issues, People

  "Writer Bill James". "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. May 20, 2011.

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• I know of no great men except those who have rendered great service to the human race.

  Voltaire

  Helping Others, Men, Race

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• Great men hallow a whole people, and lift up all who live in their time.

  Sydney Smith

  Time, Greatness, Men

  Sydney Smith (1859). “The Works of the Rev. Sydney Smith”, p.315

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• A great man represents a great ganglion in the nerves of society, or to vary the figure, a strategic point in the campaign of history, and part of his greatness consists in his being there.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

  Greatness, Men, Campaigns

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• Every great man inevitable resents a partner in greatness.

  Lucan

  Greatness, Men, Partners

  Lucan (1957). “Pharsalia: dramatic episodes of the Civil Wars”

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• A great man may be the personification and type of the epoch for which God destines him, but he is never its creator.

  Jean-Henri Merle d'Aubigne

  Greatness, Men, May

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• The necessity of saying something, the embarrassment produced by the consciousness of having nothing to say, and the desire to exhibit ability, are three things sufficient to render even a great man ridiculous.

  Voltaire

  Philosophy, Men, Desire

  Voltaire (1824). “A Philosophical Dictionary: From the French”, p.118

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• Few great men would have got past personnel.

  Paul Goodman

  Funny, Business, Past

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• An obstacle is something you see when you take your eyes off the goal Few great men could pass personnel

  Paul Goodman

  Life And Love, Eye, Men

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• The loss of sex polarity is part and parcel of the larger disintegration, the reflex of the soul's death, and coincident with the disappearance of great men, great deeds, great causes, great wars, etc.

  Henry Miller

  Death, Sex, War

  Henry Miller (1961). “The Cosmological Eye”, p.120, New Directions Publishing

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• Ambition, madam, is a great man's madness.

  John Webster

  Ambition, Men, Madness

  1623 The Duchess of Malfi, act 1, sc.1.

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• Did you ever see a portrait of a great man without perceiving strong traits of pain and anxiety?

  John Adams

  Strong, Pain, Men

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1856). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.217

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