122 Greatness Quotes

In the journey of life, we often seek inspiration to push forward, strive for excellence, and unlock our fullest potential. Greatness is not an attribute reserved for a select few; it's a quality that can be cultivated through perseverance, passion, and a relentless drive to overcome obstacles. We’ve gathered a curated collection of the top 122 Greatness Quotes to ignite your inner fire and encourage you to pursue your highest aspirations. Whether you're looking for motivation to kickstart your day, a spark to reignite your dreams, or a boost to keep you going during challenging times, these quotes are timeless reminders of the power and potential within each of us. Dive in and let these words of wisdom guide you on your path to greatness.

1. “Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.” - William Shakespeare

2. “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” - Mark Twain

3. “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” - Albert Einstein

4. “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia.[Epitaph, upon his instructions to erect a 'a plain die or cube ... surmounted by an Obelisk' with 'the following inscription, and not a word more…because by these, as testimonials that I have lived, I wish most to be remembered.' It omits that he had been President of the United States, a position of political power and prestige, and celebrates his involvement in the creation of the means of inspiration and instruction by which many human lives have been liberated from oppression and ignorance]” - Thomas Jefferson

5. “Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

6. “Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.” - Judy Garland

7. “I was never afraid of failure; for I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest.” - John Keats

8. “The greatness comes not when things go always good for you. But the greatness comes when you're really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes. Because only if you've been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.” - Richard Nixon

9. “Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence– whether much that is glorious– whether all that is profound– does not spring from disease of thought– from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect.” - Edgar Allan Poe

10. “[I]f we revert to history, we shall find that the women who have distinguished themselves have neither been the most beautiful nor the most gentle of their sex.” - Mary Wollstonecraft

11. “Good and great are seldom in the same man. ” - Winston S. Churchill

12. “Robert G. Ingersoll was a great man. a wonderful intellect, a great soul of matchless courage, one of the great men of the earth -- and yet we have no right to bow down to his memory simply because he was great. Great orators, great soldiers, great lawyers, often use their gifts for a most unholy cause. We meet to pay a tribute of love and respect to Robert G. Ingersoll because he used his matchless power for the good of man.{Darrow's eulogy for Ingersoll at his funeral}” - Clarence Darrow

13. “The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.” - Napoleon Bonaparte

14. “In my opinion, if, as the result of certain combinations, Kepler's or Newton's discoveries could become known to people in no other way than by sacrificing the lives of one, or ten, or a hundred or more people who were hindering the discovery, or standing as an obstacle in its path, then Newton would have the right, and it would even be his duty... to remove those ten or a hundred people, in order to make his discoveries known to mankind. It by no means follows from this, incidentally, that Newton should have the right to kill anyone he pleases, whomever happens along, or to steal from the market every day. Further, I recall developing in my article the idea that all... well, let's say, the lawgivers and founders of mankind, starting from the most ancient and going on to the Lycurguses, the Solons, the Muhammads, the Napoleons, and so forth, that all of them to a man were criminals, from the fact alone that in giving a new law, they thereby violated the old one, held sacred by society and passed down from their fathers, and they certainly did not stop at shedding blood either, if it happened that blood (sometimes quite innocent and shed valiantly for the ancient law) could help them.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky

15. “If you can't do great things, Mother Teresa used to say, do little things with great love. If you can't do them with great love, do them with a little love. If you can't do them with a little love, do them anyway.Love grows when people serve.” - John Ortberg

16. “You were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it courageously.” - Steve Maraboli

17. “Every step gets him closer to greatness...or disaster.” - Jody Feldman

18. “If a man has a capacity for great thoughts, he is likely to overtake them before he is decrepit.” - George Eliot

19. “He had all the attributes of a perfect man, and, in my opinion, no finer personality ever existed.{Edison's opinion of the great Robert Ingersoll}” - thomas edison

20. “If woman had no existence save in the fiction written by men, one would imagine her a person of the utmost importance (...); as great as a man, some think even greater. But this is woman in fiction. In fact, as Professor Trevelyan points out [in his History of England], she was locked up, beaten and flung about the room.” - Virginia Woolf

21. “If a man has any greatness in him, it comes to light, not in one flamboyant hour, but in the ledger of his daily work.” - Beryl Markham

22. “The rule seemed to be that a great woman must either die unwed ... or find a still greater man to marry her. ... The great man, on the other hand, could marry where he liked, not being restricted to great women; indeed, it was often found sweet and commendable in him to choose a woman of no sort of greatness at all.” - Dorothy L. Sayers

23. “I think that fame removes true happiness. Because when you are famous, people know you for who they think you are and when you are happy, it's because people have met you and see you for who you really are. Of course, if you are not a great person, it's better to be famous. But if you have greatness, it's better to not be famous.” - C. JoyBell C.

24. “Be careful not to mistake insecurity and inadequacy for humility! Humility has nothing to do with the insecure and inadequate! Just like arrogance has nothing to do with greatness!” - C. JoyBell C.

25. “It's because I haven't courage,' said Samuel. 'I could never quite take the responsibility. When the Lord God did not call my name, I might have called his name - but I did not. There you have the difference between greatness and mediocrity. It's not an uncommon disease. But it's nice for a mediocre man to know that greatness must be the loneliest state in the world.''I'd think there are degrees of greatness,' Adam said.'I don't think so,' said Samuel. 'That would be like saying there is a little bigness. No. I believe when you come to that responsibility the hugeness and you are alone to make your choice. On one side you have warmth and companionship and sweet understanding, and on the other - cold, lonely greatness. There you make your choice. I'm glad I chose mediocrity, but how am I to say what reward might have come with the other? None of my children will be great either, except perhaps Tom. He's suffering over the choosing right now. It's a painful thing to watch. And somewhere in me I want him to say yes. Isn't that strange? A father to want his son condemned to greatness! What selfishness that must be.” - John Steinbeck

26. “So many will try to destroy me. So many, over and over, coming in periods of greatness. But in this period, I cannot be broken: GAGAKLEIN.” - Lady Gaga

27. “The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment.” - Elbert Hubbard

28. “He knew now that it was his own will to happiness which must make the next move. But if he was to do so, he realized that he must come to terms with time, that to have time was at once the most magnificent and the most dangerous of experiments. Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre.” - Albert Camus

29. “Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.” - Coco Chanel

30. “I came to the Greeks early, and I found answers in them. Greece's great men let all their acts turn on the immortality of the soul. We don't really act as if we believed in the soul's immortality and that's why we are where we are today.” - Edith Hamilton

31. “Always to be right, always to trample forward, and never to doubt, are not these the great qualities with which dullness takes the lead in the world?” - William Makepeace Thackeray

32. “Somewhere in the world there is a defeat for everyone. Some are destroyed by defeat, and some made small and mean by victory. Greatness lives in one who triumphs equally over defeat and victory.” - John Steinbeck

33. “There is no one great man. Only millions of men and women in possession of tiny pieces of greatness, which when put together, when assembled in the aggregate make the whole. I am a piece of a very large jigsaw puzzle. One of the corner pieces. The one you go for first - important for a time, different from most of the others. But then, in the end, in the big picture, just one of many.” - Mark Dunn

34. “Some people are born with a fire inside them. The will to succeed. It isn’t a learned behavior. It’s just some unknown biological factor that makes them try harder.” - J.A. Konrath

35. “The greater the loyalty of a group toward the group, the greater is the motivation among the members to achieve the goals of the group, and the greater the probability that the group will achieve its goals.” - Rensis Likert

36. “Though I think and speak of greater becoming, I, too, am an infinite work in progress.” - T.F. Hodge

37. “There are times when the world is rearranging itself, and at times like that, the right words can change the world.” - Orson Scott Card

38. “Fame is a jealous mistressAnd will brook no rival.” - Tiruvalluvar

39. “The firstsign of greatness is when a man does not attempt to look and actgreat. Before you can call yourself a man at all, Kipling assuresus, you must "not look too good nor talk too wise.” - Dale Breckenridge Carnegie

40. “Milton's Eve! Milton's Eve! ... Milton tried to see the first woman; but Cary, he saw her not ... I would beg to remind him that the first men of the earth were Titans, and that Eve was their mother: from her sprang Saturn, Hyperion, Oceanus; she bore Prometheus" --"Pagan that you are! what does that signify?""I say, there were giants on the earth in those days: giants that strove to scale heaven. The first woman's breast that heaved with life on this world yielded the daring which could contend with Omnipotence: the stregth which could bear a thousand years of bondage, -- the vitality which could feed that vulture death through uncounted ages, -- the unexhausted life and uncorrupted excellence, sisters to immortality, which after millenniums of crimes, struggles, and woes, could conceive and bring forth a Messiah. The first woman was heaven-born: vast was the heart whence gushed the well-spring of the blood of nations; and grand the undegenerate head where rested the consort-crown of creation. ...I saw -- I now see -- a woman-Titan: her robe of blue air spreads to the outskirts of the heath, where yonder flock is grazing; a veil white as an avalanche sweeps from hear head to her feet, and arabesques of lighting flame on its borders. Under her breast I see her zone, purple like that horizon: through its blush shines the star of evening. Her steady eyes I cannot picture; they are clear -- they are deep as lakes -- they are lifted and full of worship -- they tremble with the softness of love and the lustre of prayer. Her forehead has the expanse of a cloud, and is paler than the early moon, risen long before dark gathers: she reclines her bosom on the ridge of Stilbro' Moor; her mighty hands are joined beneath it. So kneeling, face to face she speaks with God. That Eve is Jehova's daughter, as Adam was His son.” - Charlotte Brontë

41. “Was not Hypatia the greatest philosopher of Alexandria, and a true martyr to the old values of learning? She was torn to pieces by a mob of incensed Christians not because she was a woman, but because her learning was so profound, her skills at dialectic so extensive that she reduced all who queried her to embarrassed silence. They could not argue with her, so they murdered her.” - Iain Pears

42. “Some are born great. Some achieve greatness. Some get it as a graduation gift.” - Robin Williams

43. “Today is a new day. Don't let your history interfere with your destiny! Let today be the day you stop being a victim of your circumstances and start taking action towards the life you want. You have the power and the time to shape your life. Break free from the poisonous victim mentality and embrace the truth of your greatness. You were not meant for a mundane or mediocre life!” - Steve Maraboli

44. “The Prince came to give life unto those whose lives were almost being snuffed out by the devil via the cares of this world.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

45. “Everyone that enters through Him is secured and the person shall find pastures for himself. Jesus really cares!” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

46. “We cannot prevail by our own might or strength, we need to plug on to the source of our strength so that we will remain resourceful always.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

47. “You may not attain the highest height with one leap but my dear; you will reach your destination.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

48. “God is not a thief. That which steals, kills and destroys is the devil - not God!” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

49. “Your decision not to join the crowd may be what God is waiting for to grant you revelation on how to deliver your family, your country, business, profession or even your church!” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

50. “God rewards every act of obedience to His Will.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

51. “Dare to be different. Represent your maker well and you will forever abide in the beautiful embrace of his loving arms.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

52. “God is never tired of bringing the sun out every morning, taking it in the evenings and bringing out the moon.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

53. “Your mouth is not given to you for feeding alone; it is given to you to programme events and circumstance around you.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

54. “You recreate your world to your taste with God's Word in your mouth.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

55. “Your words are powerful so what you say goes a long way to either establish or destroy you; this is why you should say things that God has said concerning you, not things that situations or circumstances say.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

56. “The choice is yours. Don't let your pronouncements destroy your destiny rather let them build your future up!” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

57. “Create your world with God's Word in your mouth just say it and it will be accomplished!” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

58. “Weigh whatever you are about to say; what will it do to your hearer - encouragement, edification, disappointment or fear? What will it do to your life - glorify, edify, beautify or weigh you down? Speak well and things will go well.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

59. “You are not permitted to suffer what others suffer, you are not permitted to fail or die young.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

60. “You are not permitted to live and die as a non-entity because you have encountered the greatness that is associated with Christ.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

61. “Dominate in your domain; You can do it.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

62. “Don't die without fulfilling your purpose.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

63. “Those touchy mediocrities who sit trembling lest someone's work prove greater than their own - they have no inkling of the loneliness that comes when you reach the top. The loneliness for an equal - for a mind to respect and an achievement to admire.” - Ayn Rand

64. “Now the big question is: what direction are you moving? Look inward; there is a burning desire in your heart that will make you the person you can become – A superstar!” - Maureen Lawrence

65. “Don't blow off another's candle for it won't make yours shine brighter.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

66. “Don't set your goals by what other people deem important.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

67. “The common man wants nothing of life but health, longevity, amusement, comfort -- "happiness." He who does not despise this should turn his eyes from world history, for it contains nothing of the sort. The best that history has created is great suffering.” - Oswald Spengler

68. “There is an enduring freshness in what remains strange and obscure which the cliches of greatness can only evoke nostalgia for.” - Bauvard

69. “A man's shortcomings are taken from his epoch; his virtues and greatness belong to himself.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

70. “Greatness is sifted through the grind, therefore don't despise the hard work now for surely it will be worth it in the end.” - Sanjo Jendayi

71. “Endeavor for greatness, venture for the sake of the heart.” - Nadège Richards

72. “You can change any status quo, stand out, walk by faith and not by sight and things will definitely go well with you.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

73. “Don't just float through life; don't just agree to anything and everything, have a course you are known for at all times.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

74. “But what is great can only begin great.” - Martin Heidegger

75. “When it is impossible to stretch the very elastic threads of historical ratiocination any farther, when actions are clearly contrary to all that humanity calls right or even just, the historians produce a saving conception of ‘greatness.’ ‘Greatness,’ it seems, excludes the standards of right and wrong. For the ‘great’ man nothing is wrong, there is no atrocity for which a ‘great’ man can be blamed.” - Leo Tolstoy

76. “In general I strive for greatness and rational achievement, but I admit to you I’ve a terrible fondness for women, a tendency towards drunkenness, and a weakness for the fumes of the poppy—opium and other miserable beauties.” - Roman Payne

77. “Rise to the challenge of bringing your dreams to life! Do not be discouraged by resistance, be nourished by it. Success is the experience of rising to the level of your true greatness.” - Steve Maraboli

78. “Never again will I underestimate the greatness inside of me just because of the hate and limited thinking inside of others.” - Steve Maraboli

79. “We have an internal check and balance system. By design we are so filled with possibility, opportunity, with greatness that when we live small, within the bottom of our capability, we innately know we should be living greater than that, and it creates a disconnect inside that leads us to feeling empty, unhappy, maybe even depressed.” - Steve Maraboli

80. “I have come to believe that our innate purpose is nothing more than to be the greatest version of ourselves. It is a process of refinement, improvement, and enhancement. When you are aligned with this process and living your purpose, you have the potential of creating something amazing.” - Steve Maraboli

81. “The great would not think themselves demigods if the little did not worship them.” - Pierre-Claude-Victor Boiste

82. “Greatness is in influence, and not necessarily in affluence. It is not achieved by being a 'paper millionaire', but by being a 'people millionaire'.” - Ogwo David Emenike

83. “Sometimes it takes great suffering to pierce the soul and open it up to greatness” - Jocelyn Murray

84. “An average man is egoistic, proud and has strong self esteem. They always require partners who massage their ego not those who will drag their ego to the mud.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

85. “Ladies, get confident bout yourselves, build up your self-worth and esteem, love yourself and be proud of your achievements and your man will adore you for life.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

86. “An intelligent woman is a goldmine! She has the ability to learn, reason and understand things better and faster than her contemporaries. She is competent, alert and can reason out stuffs easily.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

87. “Patience is a virtue not a vice.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

88. “A responsible woman is one who sees opportunities of service and responds to them quickly. In her dwells the ability to see and respond to opportunities.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

89. “A matured woman is therefore a responsible woman irrespective of her age, status and qualification.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

90. “A responsible woman sees and accepts only the best in a given situation.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

91. “A responsible woman guides, controls (albeit subtly), directs with superior knowledge that is higher than that of her contemporaries!” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

92. “A responsible woman doesn’t see opportunities and needs and look the other way pretending not to see them rather she gets to work to ensure things are done properly and her man succeeds in his endeavours.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

93. “Ladies, get confident about yourselves, build up your self-worth and esteem, love yourself and be proud of your achievements and your man will adore you for life.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

94. “God in his unending greatness and glory and man in his unending littleness, prepared for the worst but rarely for the best, prepared for the possible but rarely for the impossible.” - Frederick Buechner

95. “Success is personal ownership of the dream, and responsibility for its desired outcome.” - Johnnie Dent Jr.

96. “Only adversity provides the opportunity for greatness.” - Wayde Goodall

97. “The loves and sorrows that are great are destroyed by their own plentitude.” - Oscar Wilde

98. “The only permission, the only validation, and the only opinion that matters in our quest for greatness is our own.” - Steve Maraboli

99. “Great men know how to control two things; their women and money.” - Habeeb Akande

100. “Options abound world over, Options to choose from and be the best.” - Agu Jaachynma N E

101. “Be positive at all times! Leave out the negatives.” - Agu Jaachynma N E

102. “Shout out for Joy! Don`t scream out in fear for victors shout and victims scream.” - Agu Jaachynma N E

103. “Don`t turn around in circles for making circles do not equate making progress.” - Agu Jaachynma N E

104. “Forget yesterday, Act on Today and Get a hold on tomorrow.” - Agu Jaachynma N E

105. “It turns out horrendous when you choose the wrong options.” - Agu Jaachynma N E

106. “Decide to be rich! Hate poverty strong.” - Agu Jaachynma N E

107. “There is seed time and harvest, choose to sow at the right time so as to have a bountiful harvest.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

108. “Sow good seeds for a good yield.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

109. “Choices, options, decisions abound. Choose right, take the best option and decide well.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

110. “You have been called to a life of blessing, don`t descend to that of curses.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

111. “Avoid conflicts, Embrace cordiality.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

112. “Relish what is good and expedient.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

113. “Sow the right words! Think the good thought.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

114. “Always contend for the good!” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

115. “Shine forth your light before all beings.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

116. “Light is life and always wins.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

117. “Shun darkness and evil vices for they that embrace them wear off with time!” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

118. “Desire to give and not always receive.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

119. “The giver is the blessed! The receiver stands still.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

120. “You are created with a mandate! You have all you need to fulfill it.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

121. “I don't know what kind of great I'm bound to be," Dove considered his prospects calmly, "all I know for certain is I'm born a world-shaker.” - Nelson Algren

122. “Anyaele Sam Chiyson Leadership Law of Responsibility: Great leaders greet their geniuses through their greatest power of choice, principle-based living and highest means of expressing their voice.” - Anyaele Sam Chiyson