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The great end of life is not knowledge but action. ...
by Thomas Henry Huxley

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.
- Thomas Henry Huxley

Related topics: Life Human-Nature Psychology Action

The Four Stages of Public Opinion
I (Just after publication): The novelty is absurd
and subversive of Religion and Morality.
The propounder both fool and knave.
II (Twenty years later): The Novelty is absolute Truth
and will yield a full and satisfactory
explanation of things in general -
The propounder a man of sublime genius and perfect virtue.
III (Forty years later): The Novelty won't explain
things in general after all, and therefore is a wretched failure.
The propounder a very ordinary person advertised by a clique.
IV (A century later): The Novelty a mixture of truth and error.
Explains as much as could reasonably be expected.
The propounder worthy of all honor
in spite of his share of human frailties,
as one who has added to the permanent possessions of science.
- Thomas Henry [T. H.] Huxley

Silence is a source of great strength.
- Lao Tzu

The essence of life is not in
the great victories and grand failures,
but in the simple joys.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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Thank you for joining me on this journey we call life,
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To the young child, all life is a great adventure -
when did we grow so dull and brittle.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Where there is great love,
there are always miracles.
- Willa Cather

If a man is called to be a street sweeper,
he should sweep streets even as 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.

Wealth consists not in having great possessions,
but in having few wants.
- Epictetus

These are not dark days -
these are great days.
- Winston Churchill

That some achieve great success,
is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.
- Abraham Lincoln

We can do no great things,
only small things with great love.
- Mother Teresa

My great concern is not whether you have failed,
but whether you are content with your failure.
- Abraham Lincoln

Great men or men of great gifts
you shall easily find,
but symmetrical men never.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Little strokes,
Fell great oaks.
- Benjamin Franklin

Nurture your mind with great thoughts,
for you will never go any higher than you think.
- Benjamin Disraeli

In times of great stress or adversity,
it's always best to keep busy,
to plow your anger and your energy
into something positive.
- Lee Iacocca

There are trivial truths and there are great truths.
The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false.
The opposite of a great truth is also true.
- Niels Bohr

The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those
who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Do the difficult things while they are easy
and do the great things while they are small.
A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
- Lao Tzu

You're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So... get on your way!
- Dr. Seuss

Before we acquire great power
we must acquire wisdom to use it well.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

How do we measure a great leader?
By how he treats the least of these.
- Jesse Jackson

Trust men and they will be true to you;
treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Great oaks from little acorns grow.
- Proverb

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort,
and without it nothing great was ever achieved.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

A great man is always willing to be little.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The water in a vessel is sparkling;
the water in the sea is dark.
The small truth has words which are clear;
the great truth has great silence.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Confidence is that feeling by which the mind embarks
in great and honorable courses
with a sure hope and trust in itself.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero

Keep courage. Whatever you do,
do not feel sorry for yourself.
You will win in a great age of opportunity.
- Richard L. Evans

Character is higher than intellect.
A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies,
but even more to stand up to your friends.
- J.K. Rowling

Great indeed is the sublimity of the Creative,
to which all beings owe their beginning
and which permeates all heaven.
- Lao Tzu

It is an act of great Courage to forsake all Blame.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

No great thing is created suddenly.
- Epictetus

A great secret of success is to go through life
as a man who never gets used up.
- Albert Schweitzer

Great leadership is not the visit of an unexpected fate
but rather a flame which is kept burning
in spite of the winds of risk and opposition.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Great works are performed not by strength,
but by perseverance.
- Samuel Johnson

To be oneself is a rare thing, and a great one.
- Ursula K. Le Guin

To be great is to be misunderstood.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dare to dream of your great success.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Until you'll willing to look foolish,
you'll never have the possibility of being great.
- Cher

Thinking is necessary, but not sufficient, for living a great life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Great minds have purposes others have wishes.
- Washington Irving

The Universe is one great kindergarten for man.
Everything that exists has brought
with it its own peculiar lesson.
- Orison Swett Marden

Great and good are seldom the same man.
- Winston Churchill

Great spirits have always encountered
violent opposition from mediocre minds.
- Albert Einstein

The choice is to work alone to be a little
more successful than the next person,
or to work together for the great betterment of humanity.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Great talents are the most lovely
and often the most dangerous
fruits on the tree of humanity.
They hang upon the most slender twigs
that are easily snapped off.
- Carl Jung

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,
adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. -
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The wicked leader is he who the people despise.
The good leader is he who the people revere.
The great leader is he who the people say, "We did it ourselves."
- Lao Tzu

Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones,
as the wind blows out the candle and blows up the bonfire.
- Francois de la Rochefoucauld

In this life we cannot do great things.
We can only do small things with great love.
- Mother Teresa

From small beginnings come great things.
- Anonymous

After climbing a great hill,
one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
- Nelson Mandela

All the great things are simple,
and many can be expressed in a single word:
freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
- Winston Churchill

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
- Samuel Johnson

Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news.
The good news is that you don't know how great you can be!
How much you can love!
What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!
- Anne Frank

The great pleasure in life is doing
what people say you cannot do.
- Walter Bagehot

The magic words for a great relationship are,
"I love you just the way you are."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Small opportunities are often
the beginning of great enterprises.
- Demosthenes

Love is the great miracle cure.
Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives.
- Louise L. Hay

To be conscious that you are ignorant
is a great step to knowledge.
- Benjamin Disraeli

Half a truth is often a great lie.
- Benjamin Franklin

About leadership: No person can be a great leader
unless he takes genuine joy
in the successes of those under him.
- W. A. Nance

Dare to dream of your great success.
Become intimate with those things
which deeply motivate you
and regularly work toward
the realization of that mission.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.
- John D. Rockefeller

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers,
who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt
to offer a solution everybody can understand.
- Colin Powell

The really great secret - Happiness is free.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I have decided to stick with love.
Hate is too great a burden to bear.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Life is a great big canvas,
and you should throw all the paint you can on it.
- Danny Kaye

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May the world be kind to you, and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie