Being named Michael Jordan – I think growing up playing sports and having a name like Michael Jordan – and I was extremely competitive – I used to get teased a lot. But it made me want to strive for greatness and be able to compete at whatever I decided to do.
We all want recognition and validation to an extent for our art, but greatness as a trade for decency is a risky proposition. In my life, I try to leave the people I encounter with the feeling that they have been respected and treated with warmth and appreciation.
There is nothing as special as watching greatness.
That’s part of American greatness, is discrimination. Yes, sir. Inequality, I think, breeds freedom and gives a man opportunity.
Greatness consists in deciding only what is necessary for the welfare of the country and making straight for the goal.
He that can heroically endure adversity will bear prosperity with equal greatness of soul; for the mind that cannot be dejected by the former is not likely to be transported with the later.
There was once a time when ‘Final Fantasy’ meant greatness, when seeing Square’s brand on a game box meant you were about to play something special. That time has long since passed.
I believe that one should not interrupt the greatness of a woman who has everything going for herself until one is ready to add value to her life.
To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
This is what America is about when it comes to understanding that it is equal opportunity versus equal achievement. Each and every one of us has the opportunity for greatness in this country.
Sometimes I wonder whether Washington’s liberal politicians truly understand the greatness that is America.
When you close your eyes to tragedy, you close your eyes to greatness.
We Harvard students live in a tourist attraction with movie stars and geniuses; we’re recognized on all continents as the creme of the brulee, the syrup on the pancakes of greatness. Yet most of us complain like vegans at a barbecue cook-off.
The contemporary form of true greatness lies in a civilization founded on the spirituality of work.
Marino was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005, and his name always comes up when the conversation centers on the greatest quarterbacks of all time. But his greatness comes with an asterisk: He never won the Big Game.
The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
A grateful heart is a beginning of greatness. It is an expression of humility. It is a foundation for the development of such virtues as prayer, faith, courage, contentment, happiness, love, and well-being.
Rome has grown since its humble beginnings that it is now overwhelmed by its own greatness.
I want things to be the best they can be. I want greatness.
You see, greatness for a state doesn’t require some huge monument for all to see. It is not a journey to a particular destination – but a commitment to follow a course of constant and never-ending improvement.
I am fascinated, I suppose, by a flawed man with a streak of greatness.
It is criminal to steal a purse, daring to steal a fortune, a mark of greatness to steal a crown. The blame diminishes as the guilt increases.
A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.
No one who has come to true greatness has not felt in some degree that his life belongs to the people, and what God has given them he gives it for mankind.
America was born as a nation of immigrants who have always contributed to its greatness.
Of all vices, drinking is the most incompatible with greatness.
The United States is a big country but unfortunately it seems it has the brain of a little bird not befitting the greatness of the country.
I’ve said all along that I was destined for greatness.
The great player, so much of the greatness, in my mind, is in his heart and his head. It’s not in his body, in his skill set. It comes from having great talent but wanting to mold that and fit it together into being special. And being special means winning championships.
I’m trying to stay focused – trying to open up again – and the music really did a lot of greatness for me and meeting a lot of people that really had concern and compassion for me.
As soon as a regular guy like Bill Clinton becomes the president, he wears a mantle of greatness. He’s the president.
The line between greatness and obscurity is very, very small.
America’s greatness is largely because of how we value the weakest among us.
I was overwhelmed by so many interviewers and then messages of congratulations. So many congratulation messages. I feel this shows the authority and the greatness of the Nobel Prize.
Neither wealth or greatness render us happy.
Great broadcasting requires all of us, those who are in positions of power and especially those who are in positions to employ people, to remember you need to look towards the greatest conceivable palate to create greatness.
The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that will show you what the real smallness of your greatness is.
Our expectations of greatness and the American spirit are being systematically dismantled.
Future’s not everybody. The people who are taking my style are like my babies. I’ve got a tribe of kids that want to be like me… But I understand why people want to imitate the things I do. They’re dope. It comes naturally to me. My fans can expect greatness. If I wasn’t me, I would want to be me.
Mediocrity in politics is not to be despised. Greatness is not needed.
The patriot subordinates himself to his State in order to raise it above all other States and thus, as it were, to find his personal sacrifice repaid with ample interest through the might and greatness of his fatherland.
I always try to demand greatness from myself.
Greatness, generally speaking, is an unusual quantity of a usual quality grafted upon a common man.
Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be waiting for us in our graves – or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.
There’s a greatness in this country many of the kids today don’t know.
It’s the type of thing where, if you gonna battle somebody to prove your greatness, you wanna go to somebody that shares that same seat with you.
LeBron carries a certain weight. You feel him all the time. On the court, off the court, in the organization. I don’t say ‘weight’ in a bad way, but his presence is always felt. He is striving for greatness at all times. Because he’s such a magnetic personality and such an incredible basketball player, people follow him.
Therefore let men withdraw themselves from errors; and laying aside corrupt superstitions, let them acknowledge their Father and Lord, whose excellence cannot be estimated, nor His greatness perceived, nor His beginning comprehended.
When you are in the company of greatness, there is only one thing to do: to raise your game.
My goal is greatness, so whether it is at 155 or 170 doesn’t really matter.
I believe greatness is an evolutionary process that changes and evolves era to era.
I want greatness.
It is not the greatness of a man’s means that makes him independent, so much as the smallness of his wants.
The greatness of art is not to find what is common but what is unique.
Chicago is an incredibly great city, but it was clear to me that greatness wasn’t being spread to all our neighborhoods.
Having a story is what people connect with, but the story alone doesn’t allow you to achieve greatness and results. It’s the day-to-day consistency of providing value to your audience.
This is the greatest society in all of human history, the greatest country ever. Many of the decisions being made in Washington today by both parties are threatening that greatness. And if we stay on this road we’re on right now, our children are going to be the first Americans ever to inherit a diminished country.
There is greatness in the fear of God, contentment in faith of God, and honour in humility.
I always knew and my parents always knew I was destined for greatness. I didn’t know what sport it was going to be in. I played football, baseball and wrestling.
It’s a great thing to hear people putting me up to this standard and putting me on this pedestal and expecting greatness from me, but at the end of the day, I’m just trying to be a better me as an artist musically.
No university in the world has ever risen to greatness without a correspondingly great library… When this is no longer true, then will our civilization have come to an end.
If you look up the definition of greatness in the dictionary, it will say Michael Jordan.
There is a melancholy that stems from greatness.
France cannot be France without greatness.
Take those chances and you can achieve greatness, whereas if you go conservative, you’ll never know. I truly believe what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Even if you fail, learning and moving on is sometimes the best thing.
