Genius begins great works; labor alone finishes them.
Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.
I consider myself extremely lucky to have worked with so many great collaborators in my lifetime.
We should always look upon ourselves as God’s servants, placed in God’s world, to do his work; and accordingly labour faithfully for him; not with a design to grow rich and great, but to glorify God, and do all the good we possibly can.
There is no great genius without some touch of madness.
A great man is always willing to be little.
Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity.
I hope it is true that a man can die and yet not only live in others but give them life, and not only life, but that great consciousness of life.
While on top of Everest, I looked across the valley towards the great peak Makalu and mentally worked out a route about how it could be climbed. It showed me that even though I was standing on top of the world, it wasn’t the end of everything. I was still looking beyond to other interesting challenges.
To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves – there lies the great, singular power of self-respect.
Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone who is detached.
I’ve also seen that great men are often lonely. This is understandable, because they have built such high standards for themselves that they often feel alone. But that same loneliness is part of their ability to create.
Don’t wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Weak men wait for opportunities; strong men make them.
Greatness lies, not in being strong, but in the right using of strength; and strength is not used rightly when it serves only to carry a man above his fellows for his own solitary glory. He is the greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his own.
To be great is to be misunderstood.
Strong convictions precede great actions.
What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.
Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.
Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it.
Luck is great, but most of life is hard work.
Every great film should seem new every time you see it.
The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy.
Near the gates and within two cities there will be scourges the like of which was never seen: famine within plague, people put out by steel, crying to the great immortal God for relief.
To live for a time close to great minds is the best kind of education.
I wish that the Indians believed me a god, for upon the report of an enemy’s valor oftentimes depends the success of a battle, and false reports have many times done as great things as true courage and resolution.
Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.
Every great story seems to begin with a snake.
Food is the great connector, and laughs are the cement. If we go out to eat and have a nice meal, that’s one thing. If we can share a laugh, now we’re friends.
Lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us, footprints on the sands of time.
Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.
Ah, great it is to believe the dream as we stand in youth by the starry stream; but a greater thing is to fight life through and say at the end, the dream is true!
It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment.
The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. He has it within his means to nourish the former and outgrow the latter.
Good writers borrow from other writers. Great writers steal from them outright.
Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes.
The digital camera is a great invention because it allows us to reminisce. Instantly.
Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation.
Great hopes make great men.
Globalization can be a great opportunity.
In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.
Mother Nature is the great equalizer. You can’t get away from it.
Great theatre is about challenging how we think and encouraging us to fantasize about a world we aspire to.
All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.
I’d rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed.
The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall.
The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.
Our time here is magic! It’s the only space you have to realize whatever it is that is beautiful, whatever is true, whatever is great, whatever is potential, whatever is rare, whatever is unique, in. It’s the only space.
Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.
Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.
In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.
All great men are gifted with intuition. They know without reasoning or analysis, what they need to know.
It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours.
There are two great days in a person’s life – the day we are born and the day we discover why.
A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.
Every great man, every successful man, no matter what the field of endeavor, has known the magic that lies in these words: every adversity has the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.
My wardrobe reflects my long-standing belief that great style lives in the details.
Great men are seldom over-scrupulous in the arrangement of their attire.
I believe in giving more than 100% on the field, and I don’t really worry about the result if there’s great commitment on the field. That’s victory for me.
A little flattery will support a man through great fatigue.
Tradition is the great misleader because it’s too easy to follow what has already been done – even though you may think you’re giving it a kick. I was really trying to invent, instead of merely expressing myself.
The great danger for family life, in the midst of any society whose idols are pleasure, comfort and independence, lies in the fact that people close their hearts and become selfish.
Sooner and later you will see great changes made, dreadful horrors and vengeances. For as the Moon is thus led by its angel, the heavens draw near to the Balance.
Great effort springs naturally from great attitude.
The sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat.
Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.
Germany is a great nation only because its people have so much Polish blood in their veins.
All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.
As a person, he was wonderful. He really was a great person. He was full of life. He had a great sense of humor. Very talented, of course, but very caring to his parents. There was a very endearing quality about Elvis.
Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions.
Anything created by human beings is already in the great book of nature.
A great restaurant is one that just makes you feel like you’re not sure whether you went out or you came home and confuses you. If it can do both of those things at the same time, you’re hooked.
The past is a great place and I don’t want to erase it or to regret it, but I don’t want to be its prisoner either.
