This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Leo Tolstoy, aka Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy or Tolstoi
There is no greatness where simplicity, goodness and truth are absent.
Greatness | Simplicity | Truth |
Harry Jack Gray, born Harry Jack Grusin
No one ever achieved greatness by playing it safe.
I've found that people who are great at something are not so much convinced of their own greatness as mystified at why everyone else seems so incompetent.
Quiet and unacclaimed acts are, to me, the real margin of greatness. Greatness is not in popularity, wealth, or long life, as most people believe. Real greatness is in simplicity and supportive words. It is in firm encouragement and gentle patience. It is in finding god in the midst of the turmoil of the marketplace, and remembering His goodness during hardship. No, greatness is not always found in those whom the world calls its heroes, but in the unheard of saints who unselfishly serve their families, lend a kind ear to a friend in despair, and lovingly see the Best in those who have become too accustomed to seeing themselves as mediocre.
Despair | Friend | God | Greatness | Life | Life | Patience | People | Popularity | Quiet | Simplicity | Turmoil | Wealth | Words | World | God |
The great achievements of the past were the adventures of the past. Only the adventurous can understand the greatness of the past.
Greatness | Past | Understand |
Suffering becomes beautiful when anybody bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.
Cheerfulness | Greatness | Mind | Suffering |
Suffering becomes beautiful when any one bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility, but through greatness of mind.
Cheerfulness | Greatness | Mind | Suffering |
Compared with the short span of time they live, men of great intellect are like huge buildings, standing on a small plot of ground. The size of the building cannot be seen by anyone, just in front of it; nor, for an analogous reason, can the greatness of a genius be estimated while he lives. but when a century has passed, the world recognizes it and wishes him back again.
Genius | Greatness | Men | Reason | Size | Time | Wishes | World | Intellect |
Compared with the short span of time they live, men of great intellect are like huge buildings, standing on a small plot of ground. The size of the building cannot be seen by anyone, just in front of it; nor, for an analogous reason, can the greatness of a genius be estimated while he lives. But when a century has passed, the world recognizes it and wishes him back again.
Genius | Greatness | Men | Reason | Size | Time | Wishes | World | Intellect |
All the glory of greatness has no luster for people who are in search of understanding.
Glory | Greatness | People | Search | Understanding |