The great man goes ahead of his time, the prudent (kluge) man goes with it, the crafty man makes his own out of it, and the blockhead sets himself against it. Bauernfeld.
The great man has more of human nature than 25 other men organised in him. Theodore Parker.
The great man is he who, in the midst of the crowd, keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. Emerson.
The great mass of people have eyes and ears, but not much more, especially little power of judgment, and even memory. Schopenhauer.
The great modern recipe is to work, still to work, and always to work. Gambetta.
The great moments of life are but moments like the others. Your doom is spoken in a word or two. A single look from the eyes, a mere pressure of the hand, may decide it; or of the lips, though they cannot speak. Thackeray.
The great point is not to pull down, but to 30 build up, and in this humanity finds pure joy. Goethe.
The great portion of labour is not skilled; the millions are and must be skilless, where strength alone is wanted. Carlyle.
The great principle of all effort is to endeavour to do, not what is absolutely best, but what is easily within our power, and adapted to our temper and condition. Ruskin.
The great river-courses which have shaped the lives of men have hardly changed. George Eliot.