Greatness is often seen as an attribute reserved for the select few, those who achieve tremendous success or change the world in extraordinary ways. However, greatness is within the grasp of every individual, no matter the path they choose. In this article, we have curated a collection of quotes that inspire and illuminate the many facets of greatness. Through these words of wisdom, you will find the motivation to pursue your highest potential, the wisdom to navigate life's challenges, and the courage to leave a lasting impact on the world. Here are the 10 sub themes of greatness quotes, each with 12 inspirational sayings.
Quotes About The Pursuit of Greatness
"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." – Lao Tzu
"Greatness is not in where we stand, but in what direction we are moving." – Oliver Wendell Holmes
"To be great is to be misunderstood." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value." – Albert Einstein
"Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right use of strength." – Henry Ward Beecher
"The price of greatness is responsibility." – Winston Churchill
"Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally." – David Frost
"Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them." – William Shakespeare
"Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome." – Booker T. Washington
"Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success." – Dale Carnegie
"Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind." – Theodore Roosevelt
"Greatness is not found in possessions, power, position, or prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, service, and character." – William Arthur Ward
Quotes About Overcoming Adversity
"The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it." – Molière
"You don’t have to be a superhero to achieve greatness. You just have to embrace the opportunity." – Mary Lou Retton
"Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny." – C.S. Lewis
"Out of difficulties grow miracles." – Jean de La Bruyère
"Turn your wounds into wisdom." – Oprah Winfrey
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." – Winston S. Churchill
"Don't watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going." – Sam Levenson
"Believe you can and you're halfway there." – Theodore Roosevelt
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." – Napoleon Hill
"Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful." – Joshua J. Marine
"The best way out is always through." – Robert Frost
Quotes About Leadership and Vision
"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." – Steve Jobs
"The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. It’s got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet." – Reverend Theodore M. Hesburgh
"The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." – Ralph Nader
"A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd." – Max Lucado
"Great leaders don’t set out to be a leader… they set out to make a difference. It’s never about the role—always about the goal." – Lisa Haisha
"Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge." – Simon Sinek
"To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart." – Eleanor Roosevelt
"The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things." – Ronald Reagan
"A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way." – John C. Maxwell
"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality." – Warren Bennis
"The best leaders are those most interested in surrounding themselves with assistants and associates smarter than they are. They are frank in admitting this and are willing to pay for such talents." – Antos Parrish
"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others." – Jack Welch
Quotes About Innovation and Creativity
"Creativity is intelligence having fun." – Albert Einstein
"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination." – Albert Einstein
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." – Alan Kay
"Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties." – Erich Fromm
"Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!" – Dr. Seuss
"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last, you create what you will." – George Bernard Shaw
"You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." – Maya Angelou
"Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together." – Vincent Van Gogh
"Creativity is seeing what everyone else has seen, and thinking what no one else has thought." – Albert Einstein
"Art begins with resistance—at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor." – André Gide
"Genius is 1% talent and 99% percent hard work." – Albert Einstein
Quotes About Courage and Determination
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it." – Nelson Mandela
"Do one thing every day that scares you." – Eleanor Roosevelt
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." – Winston Churchill
"Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.'" – Mary Anne Radmacher
"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are." – E. E. Cummings
"The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle." – Steve Jobs
"Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." – Winston Churchill
"It always seems impossible until it’s done." – Nelson Mandela
"You have within you right now, everything you need to deal with whatever the world can throw at you." – Brian Tracy
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly." – Richard Bach
"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." – Confucius
"The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity." – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Quotes About Excellence and Effort
"Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way." – Booker T. Washington
"I am a slow walker, but I never walk back." – Abraham Lincoln
"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence." – Vince Lombardi
"Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great." – Mark Twain
"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'" – Martin Luther King Jr.
"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure." – Colin Powell
"The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra." – Jimmy Johnson
"The secret of joy in work is contained in one word—excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it." – Pearl S. Buck
"Excellence is not being the best; it is doing your best." – Unknown
"In the realm of ideas, everything depends on enthusiasm... in the real world, all rests on perseverance." – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
"Quality is not an act, it is a habit." – Aristotle
"The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence." – Confucius
Quotes About Dreams and Aspirations
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." – Eleanor Roosevelt
"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them." – Walt Disney
"Dream big and dare to fail." – Norman Vaughan
"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life." – Steve Jobs
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." – C.S. Lewis
"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop." – Confucius
"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today." – Franklin D. Roosevelt
"If you can dream it, you can do it." – Walt Disney
"Where there is no vision, there is no hope." – George Washington Carver
"The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams." – Oprah Winfrey
"Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear." – George Addair
"If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it." – William Arthur Ward
Quotes About Character and Integrity
"The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching." – John Wooden
"Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching." – C.S. Lewis
"Character is destiny." – Heraclitus
"People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care." – Theodore Roosevelt
"Character is the real foundation of all worthwhile success." – John Hays Hammond
"The best index to a person's character is how he treats people who can't do him any good, and how he treats people who can't fight back." – Abigail Van Buren
"The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible." – Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Character is not something you were born with and can’t change, like your fingerprints. It’s something you weren’t born with and must take responsibility for forming." – Jim Rohn
"Goodness is about character - integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people." – Dennis Prager
"A man’s character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation." – Mark Twain
"Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one." – Marcus Aurelius
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power." – Abraham Lincoln
Quotes About Kindness and Generosity
"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." – Aesop
"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." – Mark Twain
"You can accomplish by kindness what you cannot by force." – Publilius Syrus
"Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you." – Princess Diana
"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." – Mahatma Gandhi
"When words are both true and kind, they can change the world." – Buddha
"A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal." – Steve Maraboli
"Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love." – Lao Tzu
"Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end." – Scott Adams
"The best portion of a good man's life: his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love." – William Wordsworth
"To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world." – Dr. Seuss
"A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees." – Amelia Earhart
Quotes About Wisdom and Learning
"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." – Socrates
"Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it." – Albert Einstein
"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." – Benjamin Franklin
"The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change." – Carl Rogers
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." – Nelson Mandela
"The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing." – Voltaire
"Wisdom begins in wonder." – Socrates
"Be curious, not judgmental." – Walt Whitman
"The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you." – B.B. King
"Change is the end result of all true learning." – Leo Buscaglia
"The simplest questions are the most profound. Where were you born? Where is your home? Where are you going? What are you doing? Think about these once in a while, and watch your answers change." – Richard Bach
"Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel." – Socrates
Final words
Greatness is not a destination; it is an ongoing journey. It is found in the relentless pursuit of one’s dreams, the courage to surmount obstacles, and the unwavering adherence to one's values. The quotes featured in this article are powerful reminders that while greatness may sometimes appear elusive, it is ultimately an attribute that can be cultivated through determination, innovation, and a commitment to excellence. Let these words inspire you to embrace your potential, act with integrity, and contribute to the world in meaningful ways. Continue to strive for greatness, one step at a time, and remember that the journey itself is what makes the pursuit worthwhile.
