Greatness

Quotes

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It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him.
Every man of action has a strong dose of egoism, pride, hardness, and cunning. But all those things will be regarded as high qualities if he can make them the means to achieve great ends.
Even great men are only truly recognized and honored once they are dead. Why? Because those who praise them need to feel themselves somehow superior to the person praised, they need to feel they are making some concession.

Near to the Wild Heart
Some men never feel small, but these are the few men who are
Greatness, in order to gain recognition, must all too often consent to ape greatness
All noble things are as difficult as they are rare
A man that is desirous to excel should endeavor it in those things that are in themselves most excellent
What we call little things are merely the causes of great things; they are the beginning, the embryo, and it is the point of departure which, generally speaking, decides the whole future of an existence. One single black speck may be the beginning of a gangrene, of a storm, of a revolution
It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact
I do not hesitate to say that the road to eminence and power, from an obscure condition, ought not to be made too easy, nor a thing too much of course. If rare merit be the rarest of all things, it ought to pass through some sort of probation. The temple of honor ought to be seated on an eminence. If it be open through virtue, let it be remembered, too, that virtue is never tried but by some difficulty and some struggle
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