This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"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." - Alan Cohen
"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." -
"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." -
"Moral education is impossible without the habitual vision of greatness." - Alfred North Whitehead
"The great achievements of the past were the adventures of the past. Only the adventurous can understand the greatness of the past." - Alfred North Whitehead
"Suffering becomes beautiful when any one bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility, but through greatness of mind." - Aristotle NULL
"Suffering becomes beautiful when anybody bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind." - Aristotle NULL
"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." - Arthur Schopenhauer
"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." - Arthur Schopenhauer
"Anything may be betrayed, anyone may be forgiven. But not those who lack the courage of their own greatness… It does not matter that only a few in each generation will grasp and achieve the full reality of man’s proper stature – and the rest will betray it. It is those few that move the world and give it meaning – and it is those few that I have always sought to address. The rest are of no concern of mine; it is not me or “The Fountainhead” that they will betray: it is their own souls." - Ayn Rand, born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum
"Evil is easily discovered; there is an infinite variety; good is almost unique. But some kinds of evil are almost as difficult to discover as that which we call good; and often particular evil of this class passes for good. It needs even a certain greatness of soul to attain to this, as to that which is good." - Blaise Pascal
"To go beyond the bounds of moderation is to outrage humanity. The greatness of the human soul is shown by knowing how to keep within proper bounds. So far from greatness consisting in going beyond its limits, it really consists in keeping within it." - Blaise Pascal
"When he consults himself man knows that he is great. When he contemplates the universe around him he knows that he is little and his ultimate greatness consists in his knowledge of his littleness." - Blaise Pascal
"All the glory of greatness has no luster for people who are in search of understanding." - Blaise Pascal
"It is an easy matter, requiring little thought, generosity or statesmanship to push a weak man down when he is struggling to get up. Anyone can do that. Greatness, generosity, statesmanship are shown in stimulating, encouraging every individual in the body politic to make of himself the most useful, intelligent and patriotic citizen possible." - Booker T. Washington, fully Booker Taliaferro Washington
"The superior man is he who develops, in harmonious proportions, his moral, intellectual, and physical nature. This should be the end at which men of all classes should aim, and it is this only which constitutes real greatness." - Douglas William Jerrold
"There is a kind of greatness which does not depend upon fortune; it is a certain manner that distinguishes us, and which seems to destine us for great things; it is the value we insensibly set upon ourselves; it is by this quality that we gain the deference of other men, and it is this which commonly raises us more above them, than birth, rank, or even merit itself." - François de La Rochefoucauld, François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, Francois A. F. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt
"A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness." - Elbert Green Hubbard
"Greatness is a transitory experience." - Frank Herbert, formally Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr.
"The fate of America cannot depend on any one man. The greatness of American is grounded in principles and not on any single personality." - Franklin D. Roosevelt, fully Franklin Delano Roosevelt, aka FDR
"Greatness lies, not in being strong, but in the right using of strength." - Henry Ward Beecher
"Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right use of strength; and strength is not used rightly when it only serves to carry a man above his fellows for his own solitary glory. He is greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his own." - Henry Ward Beecher
"He who has never failed somewhere, that man cannot be great. Failure is the true test of greatness." - Herman Melville
"If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both." - Horace Mann
"Greatness, in the last analysis, is largely bravery - courage in escaping from old ideas and old standards and respectable ways of doing things. This is one of the chief elements in what we vaguely call capacity. If you do not dare differ from your associates and teachers you will never be great or your life sublime. You may be the happier as a result, or you may be miserable. Each of us is great insofar as we perceive and act on the infinite possibilities which lie undiscovered and unrecognized about us." - James Harvey Robinson
"We must not measure greatness from the mansion down, but from the manger up." - Jesse Jackson, fully Jesse Louis Jackson
"The Church’s own littleness is the key to its greatness. God wishes to show that man’s salvation is His work, and not man’s." - John LaFarge
"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." - John Ruskin
"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." - John Ruskin
"All that is good in art is the expression of one soul talking to another, and is precious according to the greatness of the soul that utters it." - John Ruskin
"Anything which elevates the mind is sublime. Greatness of matter, space, power, virtue or beauty, are all sublime." - John Ruskin
"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." - John Ruskin
"A dying people tolerates the present, rejects the future, and finds its satisfaction in past greatness and half-remembered glory." - John Steinbeck, fully John Ernst Steinbeck
"Among the many acts of gratitude we owe to God, it may be accounted one to study and contemplate the perfections and beauties of His work of creation. Every new discovery must necessarily raise in us a fresh sense of the greatness, wisdom, and power of God." - Jonathan Edwards
"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." - Kahlil Gibran
"Adversity is another way to measure the greatness of individuals. I never had a crisis that didn't make me stronger." - Lou Holtz, fully Louis Leo "Lou" Holtz
"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." - Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
"It's time for greatness -- not for greed. It's a time for idealism -- not ideology. It is a time not just for compassionate words, but compassionate action." - Marian Wright Edelman
"Goodness makes greatness truly valuable, and greatness make goodness much more serviceable." - Matthew Henry
"In humility lies true greatness, and that knowledge and wisdom are profitable only in so far as our lives are governed by them." - Nicholas of Cusa, also Nicholas of Kues and Nicolaus Cusanus NULL
"Greatness is not in where we stand, but in what direction we are moving. We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it -- but sail we must and not drift, nor lie at anchor." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
"It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes life worth living." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
"Don’t complain about what you don’t have. Use what you’ve got. To do less than your best is a sin. Every single one of us has the power for greatness, because greatness is determined by service – to yourself and to others." - 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." - Oprah Winfrey, born Oprah Gail Winfrey
"Then I must surely be right in saying that we shall not be properly educated ourselves, nor will the guardians whom we are training, until we can recognize the qualities of discipline, courage, generosity, greatness of mind, and others akin to them, as well as their opposites in all their manifestations." - Plato NULL