The Quotes canon
Sourced and curated.
Every quote has been curated by hand and carefully authenticated.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Great men7 quotes
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men. — Lord Acton · 1887It is not the strength but the duration of great sentiments that makes great men. — Friedrich Nietzsche · 1886A great chess-player is not a great man, for he leaves the world as he found it. No act terminating in itself constitutes greatness. — William Hazlitt · 1821They say best men are molded out of faults,
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad. — William Shakespeare · 1616Fix your eyes on the greatness of Athens as you have it before you day by day, fall in love with her, and when you feel her great, remember that this greatness was won by men with courage, with knowledge of their duty, and with a sense of honor in action... So they gave their bodies to the commonwealth and received each for his own memory, praise that will never die, and with it the grandest of all memorials, not that in which their mortal bones are laid, but a home in the minds of men, where their glory remains fresh to stir to speech or action as the occasion comes fresh to stir to speech or action as the occasion comes by. For the whole earth is the memorial of famous men; and their story is not graven only on stone over their native earth, but lives on far away, without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men's lives. — Pericles · 430 BCGreat men are not always wise. — Elihu · 500 BCAll 7 quotes →Abuse of power1 quote
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men. — Lord Acton · 1887Chess1 quote
A great chess-player is not a great man, for he leaves the world as he found it. No act terminating in itself constitutes greatness. — William Hazlitt · 1821Corruption1 quote
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men. — Lord Acton · 1887Dying for one's country1 quote
Fix your eyes on the greatness of Athens as you have it before you day by day, fall in love with her, and when you feel her great, remember that this greatness was won by men with courage, with knowledge of their duty, and with a sense of honor in action... So they gave their bodies to the commonwealth and received each for his own memory, praise that will never die, and with it the grandest of all memorials, not that in which their mortal bones are laid, but a home in the minds of men, where their glory remains fresh to stir to speech or action as the occasion comes fresh to stir to speech or action as the occasion comes by. For the whole earth is the memorial of famous men; and their story is not graven only on stone over their native earth, but lives on far away, without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men's lives. — Pericles · 430 BCFormation of character1 quote
They say best men are molded out of faults,
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad. — William Shakespeare · 1616Heroes1 quote
Fix your eyes on the greatness of Athens as you have it before you day by day, fall in love with her, and when you feel her great, remember that this greatness was won by men with courage, with knowledge of their duty, and with a sense of honor in action... So they gave their bodies to the commonwealth and received each for his own memory, praise that will never die, and with it the grandest of all memorials, not that in which their mortal bones are laid, but a home in the minds of men, where their glory remains fresh to stir to speech or action as the occasion comes fresh to stir to speech or action as the occasion comes by. For the whole earth is the memorial of famous men; and their story is not graven only on stone over their native earth, but lives on far away, without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men's lives. — Pericles · 430 BCMan and child1 quote
The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart. — Mencius · 300 BCPersonal growth1 quote
They say best men are molded out of faults,
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad. — William Shakespeare · 1616Power1 quote
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men. — Lord Acton · 1887Wisdom1 quote
Great men are not always wise. — Elihu · 500 BC