This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Jesse Jackson, fully Jesse Louis Jackson
We must not measure greatness from the mansion down, but from the manger up.
Real great men have a curious feeling that the greatness is not in them, but through them. And they see something divine in every other man.
Whatever may be the means or whatever the more immediate end of any kind of art, all of it that is good agrees in this, that it is the expression of one soul talking to another, and is precious according to the greatness of the soul that utters it.
I believe that the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean by humility, doubt of his own powers. But really great men have a curious feeling that the greatness is not in them, but through them. And they see something divine in every other man.
Lou Holtz, fully Louis Leo "Lou" Holtz
Adversity is another way to measure the greatness of individuals. I never had a crisis that didn't make me stronger.
Every beauty and greatness in this world is created by a single thought or emotion inside a man. Every thing we see today, made by past generations, was, before its appearance, a thought in the mind of a man or an impulse in the heart of a woman.
Appearance | Beauty | Greatness | Heart | Impulse | Man | Mind | Past | Thought | Woman | World | Beauty | Thought |
My parents never bound us to any church but taught us that the love of goodness was the love of God, the cheerful doing of duty made life happy, and that the love of one’s neighbor in its widest sense was the best help for oneself. Their lives showed us how lovely this simple faith was, how much honor, gratitude and affection it brought them, and what a sweet memory they left behind.
Church | Duty | Faith | God | Gratitude | Happy | Honor | Life | Life | Love | Memory | Parents | Sense |
Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
The altogether courageous and great spirit has, above all, two characteristics. First, he is indifferent to outward circumstances. Such a person is convinced that nothing but moral goodness and propriety are worth admiring and striving for. He knows he ought not be subject to any person, passion, or accident of fortune. His second characteristic is that when his soul has been disciplined in this way, he should do things that are not only great and highly useful, but also deeds that are arduous, laborious and fraught with danger to life and to those things that make life worthwhile.
Accident | Circumstances | Danger | Deeds | Fortune | Life | Life | Nothing | Passion | Soul | Spirit | Worth | Deeds | Danger |
Maltbie Babcock, fully Maltbie Davenport Babcock
Life is what we are alive to. It is not length, but breadth. To be alive only to appetite, pleasure, pride, money-making, and not to goodness and kindness, purity and love, history, poetry, music, flowers, stars, God and eternal hopes, it is to be all but dead.
Appetite | Eternal | God | History | Kindness | Life | Life | Love | Money | Music | Pleasure | Poetry | Pride | Purity | God |
Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
Everything morally right derives from one of four sources: it concerns either full perception or intelligent development of what is true; or the preservation of organized society, where every man is rendered his due and all his obligations are faithfully discharged; or the greatness and strength of a noble, invincible spirit; or order and moderation in everything said and done, whereby there is temperance and self-control.
Control | Greatness | Man | Moderation | Order | Perception | Right | Self | Self-control | Society | Spirit | Strength | Moderation |
Oprah Winfrey, born Oprah Gail Winfrey
Every single one of us has the power for greatness, because greatness is determined by service – to yourself and to others.