Samuel Johnson Greatness Quotations

The first step to greatness is to be honest.

It is to be steadily inculcated, that virtue is the highest proof of understanding, and the only solid basis of greatness.

The superiority of some men is merely local. They are great because their associates are little.

No one ever became great by imitation.

He was dull in a new way, and that made many think him great.

Those writers who lie on the watch for novelty can have little hope of greatness; for great things cannot have escaped former observation.

As a madman is apt to think himself grown suddenly great, so he that grows suddenly great is apt to borrow a little from the madman.

That eminence of learning is not to be gained without labour, at least equal to that which any other kind of greatness can require, will be allowed by those who wish to elevate the character of a scholar; since they cannot but know that every human acquisition is valuable in proportion to the difficulty of its attainment.

The business of the biographer is often to pass slightly over those performances and incidents which produce vulgar greatness, to lead the thoughts into domestic privacies, and display the minute details of daily life, were exterior appendages are cast aside, and men excel each other only by prudence and virtue.

It is not possible to be regarded with tenderness, except by a few. That merit which gives greatness and renown diffuses its influence to a wide compass, but acts weakly on every single breast; it is placed at a distance from common spectators, and shines like one of the remote stars, of which the light reaches us, but not the heat.