Greatness consists in trying to be great. There is no other way.

Greatness consists in trying to be great. There is no other way.

Greatnesse on goodnesse loves to slide, not stand,
And leaves, for fortune's ice, vertue's firme land.

Greatnesse on goodnesse loves to slide, not stand,
And leaves, for fortune's ice, vertue's firme land.

That man scorches with his brightness, who overpowers inferior
capacities, yet he shall be revered when dead.
[Lat., read more

That man scorches with his brightness, who overpowers inferior
capacities, yet he shall be revered when dead.
[Lat., Urit enim fulgore suo qui praegravat artes
Intra se positas; extinctus amabitur idem.]

Great is advertisement! 'tis almost fate;
But, little mushroom-men, of puff-ball fame.
Ah, do you dream to read more

Great is advertisement! 'tis almost fate;
But, little mushroom-men, of puff-ball fame.
Ah, do you dream to be mistaken great
And to be really great are just the same?

Nature never sends a great man into the planet, without confiding
the secret to another soul.

Nature never sends a great man into the planet, without confiding
the secret to another soul.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

Man's Unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his Greatness; it is
because there is an Infinite in him, which read more

Man's Unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his Greatness; it is
because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning
he cannot quite bury under the Finite.

So let his name through Europe ring!
A man of mean estate,
Who dies as firm as read more

So let his name through Europe ring!
A man of mean estate,
Who dies as firm as Sparta's king,
Because his soul was great.

Great men are rarely isolated mountain- peaks; they are the summits of ranges.

Great men are rarely isolated mountain- peaks; they are the summits of ranges.