The great man is the man who can get himself made and who will get himself made out of anything he finds at hand.
Great men stand like solitary towers in the city of God.
A great man is made up of qualities that meet or make great occasions.
The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart.
That man is great, and he alone,
Who serves a greatness not his own,
For neither praise nor pelf:
Content to know and be unknown:
Whole in himself.
Are not great
Men the models of nations?
Les grands ne sont grands que parceque nous, les portons sur nos épaules; nous n'avons qu' à les secouer pour en joncher la terre.
The great are only great because we carry them on our shoulders; when we throw them off they sprawl on the ground.
Lives obscurely great.
Les grands ne sont grands que parceque nous sommes à genoux: relevons nous.
The great are only great because we are on our knees. Let us rise up.
As if Misfortune made the throne her seat,
And none could be unhappy but the great.
Es ist der Fluch der Hohen, dass die Niedern
Sich ihres offnen Ohrs bemächtigen.
The curse of greatness:
Ears ever open to the babbler's tale.
Si vir es, suspice, etiam si decidunt, magna conantes.
If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great things, even though they fail.
Greatness knows itself.
I have touched the highest point of all my greatness:
And, from that full meridian of my glory,
I haste now to my setting.
Farewell! a long farewell, to all my greatness!
This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope; to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him:
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,
And, when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root,
And then he falls, as I do.
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.
Are yet two Romans living such as these?
The last of all the Romans, fare thee well!
But thou art fair, and at thy birth, dear boy,
Nature and Fortune join'd to make thee great.
Your name is great
In mouths of wisest censure.
They that stand high have many blasts to shake them;
And if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces.
Some are born great, some achieve greatness,
and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.
Not that the heavens the little can make great,
But many a man has lived an age too late.
Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.
The world knows nothing of its greatest men.
He fought a thousand glorious wars,
And more than half the world was his,
And somewhere, now, in yonder stars,
Can tell, mayhap, what greatness is.
O, happy they that never saw the court,
Nor ever knew great men but by report!
Great let me call him, for he conquered me.
