62 Quotes That Inspire Greatness

 

What does it take to be great? 

Courage.  Commitment.  Perseverance.  A dream.

Don’t let anyone hold you back.  Don’t hold yourself back.

Greatness is a goal.  It is an ideal.  It is a choice.

In order to be great, you must choose to be great.  So what’s stopping you?

Read these 62 inspiring quotes, and discover your path to greatness.

 

Quotes That Inspire Greatness

Be not afraid of greatness; some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. ~ William Shakespeare

I believe in me more than anything in this world. ~ Wilma Rudolph

Great acts and great eloquence have most commonly gone hand in hand, equaling and honoring each other in the same ages. ~ John Milton

...greatness and strength are not our natural right. They are not gifts which are automatically ours forever. It took toil and courage and determination to build this country – and it will take those same qualities if we are to maintain it. ~ John F. Kennedy  

We value great men by their virtue and not by their success. ~ Cornelius Nepos

The great men of the earth are the shadowy men, who having lived and died, now live again and forever through their undying thoughts; thus living, though their footfalls are heard no more, their voices are louder than the thunder, and unceasing as the flow of tides or air. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

Take a stand for what’s right. Raise a ruckus and make a change. You may not always be popular, but you’ll be part of something larger and bigger and greater than yourself. Besides, making history is extremely cool. ~ Samuel L. Jackson

Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. ~ William Faulkner

In the truly great, virtue governs with the sceptre of knowledge. ~ Sir Philip Sidney

Our greatness is best seen, not in the great things we do or aspire to, but in the great things to which we are called. ~ Herman Hooker

Great souls are not those which have less passion and more virtue than common souls, but only those which have greater designs. ~ François de La Rochefoucauld

No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history. ~ William Hazlitt

Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. ~ Mary Kay Ash

It is always a sign of poverty of mind when men are ever aiming to appear great; for they who are really great never seem to know it. ~ William Cecil Burleigh

He is happiest who advances more gradually to greatness. ~ Alexander Smith

A man’s greatness lies not in wealth and station, but in the consciousness of an honest purpose in life, founded on a just estimate of himself and everything else. ~ George Long

There is something on earth greater than arbitrary power; the thunder, the lightning, and the earthquake are terrific, but the judgment of the people is more. ~ Daniel Webster

Greatness can only be rightly estimated when minuteness is justly reverenced. ~ John Ruskin

The great make us feel, first of all, the indifference of circumstances. They call into activity the higher perceptions, and subdue the low habits of comfort and luxury; but the higher perceptions find their objects everywhere; only the low habits need palaces and banquets. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I will not go so far as to say, with a living poet, that the world knows nothing of its greatest men; but there are forms of greatness, or at least of excellence, which “die and make no sign”; there are martyrs that miss the palm, but not the stake; heroes without the laurel, and conquerors without the triumph. ~ George Augustus Sala

You were designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowed with the seeds of greatness. ~ Zig Ziglar

The triumph can’t be had without the struggle. And I know what struggle is. ~ Wilma Rudolph

A man who has a noble cause, and who subordinates, and even sacrifices themself to it—he is a great man. A man who does his duty in despite of all outward contradiction, and who reverences his conscience so greatly as that, to preserve it unharmed, he will face any difficulty and submit to any penalty, he is a great man. ~ James Ferguson

It is meet the great should have the fame of happiness, the consolation of a little envy; it is all their pay for those superior cares, those pangs of heart their vassals never can feel. ~ Thomas Young

To be a great man a person must accomplish great things. ~ Hugh Gallagher

In order to be great we must form great plans, and satisfy ambition that we are capable of improving great opportunities. ~ Norman Macdonald

All great men are characterised by three things: simplicity in manners, simplicity in speech, simplicity in spirit. ~ John Bate

Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us. ~ Wilma Rudolph

No one has ever achieved greatness without dreams. ~ Roy T. Bennett

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

I believe the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean, by humility, doubt of his own power, or hesitation in speaking of his opinions; but a right understanding of the relation between what he can do and say, and the rest of the world’s sayings and doings. ~ John Ruskin

The sun illuminates the hills while it is still below the horizon, and truth is discovered by the highest minds a little before it becomes manifest to the multitude. ~ Thomas Babington Macaulay

Greatness of mind is not shown by admitting small things, but by making small things great under its influence. He who can take no interest in what is small will take false interest in what is great. ~ John Ruskin

You were born with potential. You were born with goodness and trust. You were born with ideals and dreams. You were born with greatness. ~ Rumi

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

All great men not only know their business, but usually know that they know it; and are not only right in their main opinions, but they usually know that they are right in them; only they do not think much of themselves on that account...they do not expect their fellow men therefore to fall down and worship them. ~ John Ruskin

Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come. ~ Dwayne Johnson

The price of greatness is responsibility. ~ Sir Winston Churchill

The greatest man is he who chooses the right with invincible resolution; who resists the sorest temptations from within and without; who bears the heaviest burdens cheerfully; who is calmest in storms, and most fearless under menace and frowns; and whose reliance on truth…is most unfaltering. ~ William Ellery Channing

To be great is to be misunderstood. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness. ~ Oprah Winfrey

The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment. ~ Elbert Hubbard

Great men are like oaks, under the branches of which men are happy in finding a refuge in the time of storm and rain; but when they have to pass a sunny day under them, they take pleasure in cutting the bark and breaking the branches. ~ Themistocles

People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things. ~ Sir Edmund Hillary

When you have had a taste of excellence, you cannot go back to mediocrity. ~ Maximillian Degenerez

The test of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there. ~ James Buchanan

You treat people with greatness and greatness will come back to you. ~ Afrika Bambaataa

The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Be grateful for what you have. Work for what you don’t have. ~ Anonymous

The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you. ~ John E. Southard

A great soul is above insult, injustice, grief, and mockery. ~ Jean de La Bruyère

Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly. ~ Albert Einstein

There will never be “the right time” in your life to do a great thing. You must create that time and greatness will follow. ~ John A. Passaro

Whoever renders service to many puts himself in line for greatness – great wealth, great return, great satisfaction, great reputation, and great joy. ~ Jim Rohn

Those who have the ability to be grateful are the ones who have the ability to achieve greatness. ~ Steve Maraboli

Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion. ~ Simon Sinek

True wisdom is to know what is best worth knowing, and to do what is best worth doing. ~ George Mogridge

I am lucky that whatever fear I have inside me, my desire to win is always stronger. ~ Serena Williams

There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth. ~ Leo Tolstoy

Society, indeed, has its great men and its little men, as the earth has its mountains and its valleys. ~ Thomas Babington Macaulay

(Tool + Training + Experience) x Mindset = Goal/Success. But if your mindset is zero then the equation is (100 + 100 +100) x 0 = Failure. ~ Anonymous

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

 

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