“The wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass;
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 26)
And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.”
Quotes about Greatness
“Some restaurants keep a photo of the local reviewer in the kitchen. The thinking is that if someone notices she’s in the building, everyone can up their game. And some musicians wait eagerly for A&R person to be in the crowd. If they really kill it tonight, a record deal might ensue. The most resilient approach, of course, is to act as if. What if this is your most important post, or your last one? What if the email you’re sending is going to be forwarded to your boss? What if… We can’t know for sure. But we can act as if it’s going to happen.”
Seth Godin
“A good many of the most valuable people in any society will never burn with zeal for anything except the integrity and health and well-being of their own families—and if they achieve those goals, we need ask little more of them. There are other valuable members of a society who will never generate conviction about anything beyond the productive output of their hands or minds—and a sensible society will be grateful for their contributions. Nor will it be too quick to define some callings as noble and some as ordinary. One may not quite accept Oliver Wendell Holmes’ dictum—’Every calling is great when greatly pursued’—but the grain of truth is there.”
John W. Gardner, Self-Renewal (Page 104)
“All of us can live a much easier existence if we stopped expecting greatness and started expecting something less. At least when you expect failure in everything that you do, you start living your life doing the shit you actually want to do versus doing the shit you think will help you achieve some unpromised outcome.”
Cole Schafer
“Life is a series of tradeoffs, and greater results usually require greater tradeoffs. The question is not, ‘Do you want to be great at this?’ The question is, ‘What are you willing to give up in order to be great at this?’”
James Clear, Blog
“Mankind has never achieved greatness but through suffering.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 122)
“Forget about likes and dislikes. They are of no consequence. Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness.”
George Bernard Shaw, via Sunbeams (Page 159)
“Anyone can get lucky. There’s no skill in being oblivious, and no one would consider that greatness. On the other hand, the person who perseveres through difficulties, who keeps going when others quit, who makes it to their destination through hard work and honesty? That’s admirable, because their survival was the result of fortitude and resilience, not birthright or circumstance. A person who overcame not just the external obstacles to success but mastered themselves and their emotions along the way? That’s much more impressive. The person who has been dealt a harder hand, understood it, but still triumphed? That’s greatness.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 278)
“As you grow older you will find that your desires are never really fulfilled. In fulfillment there is always the shadow of frustration, and in your heart there is not a song but a cry. The desire to become—to become a great man, a great saint, a great this or that—has no end and therefore no fulfillment; its demand is ever for the ‘more,’ and such desire always breeds agony, misery, wars. But when one is free of all desire to become, there is a state of being whose action is totally different. It is. That which is has no time. It does not think in terms of fulfillment. Its very being is in its fulfillment.”
J. Krishnamurti, Think On These Things, via Sunbeams (Page 46)
Simone Biles Quote on Work Ethic and How Greatness Requires More Of You
“Everything I do is in the gym so I’m always in gym clothes.”
Simone Biles
Beyond the Quote (Day 370)
Gymnasts perform some of the most incredible feats humanly possible. The ability to hold an iron cross; to twist multiple times through the air as they leap from a high bar to a low bar; to flip multiple times on floor routines and to watch them stick insane landings—they truly are some of the most impressive athletes in the world. And you better believe that every flip, twist, and landing is hard earned—never given.
Read More »Simone Biles Quote on Work Ethic and How Greatness Requires More Of YouCharles De Gaulle Quote on Being Great Only If We Are Determined To Be So
“Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.”
Charles De Gaulle
Beyond the Quote (322/365)
To be great, at the very least—as a bottom-line minimum requirement—you have to decide to be great. And you can’t just want to be great—it has to be a decision. Deciding and wanting are not one and the same. To decide is to have made up your mind. It means you’ve reviewed all of the alternative options and consequences in your head and you’ve come to a conclusion. It represents a clear starting point that can be followed with clear and aligning actions.
Read More »Charles De Gaulle Quote on Being Great Only If We Are Determined To Be So“What separates great players from all-time great players is their ability to self-assess, diagnose weaknesses, and turn those flaws into strengths.”
Kobe Bryant, Mamba Mentality (Page 197)
“For some people, I guess, it might be hard to stay sharp once you’ve reached the pinnacle. Not for me, though. It was never enough. I always wanted to be better, wanted more. I can’t really explain it, other than that I loved the game but had a very short memory. That fueled me until the day I hung up my sneakers.”
Kobe Bryant, Mamba Mentality (Page 125)
