A man is great by deeds, not by birth.

Being brilliant is no great feat if you respect nothing.

So many people have this idea: I want to achieve something great or be somebody great. And they neglect the step that leads to greatness. They don’t honor this step at this moment because they have this idea of some future moment where they are going to be great.

God will not look you over for medals degrees or diplomas, but for scars.

Man – a being in search of meaning.

Only a man’s character is the real criterion of worth.

Before I was born, my father told my mother, ‚If it’s a boy, he’s going to be a scientist.‘

It’s really fun to put yourself into a character – into shoes you wouldn’t normally be in.

If you don’t know how great this country is, I know someone who does; Russia.

The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.

The skin of my character in ‚The Man Who Fell to Earth‘ was some concoction, a spermatozoon of an alien nature that was obscene and weird-looking.

The gods‘ service is tolerable, man’s intolerable.

Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel.

Against eternal injustice, man must assert justice, and to protest against the universe of grief, he must create happiness.

Man is by nature a political animal.

The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.

People who don’t know the true character of God – who don’t believe He is merciful, gracious and slow to anger – can never have a close, personal, intimate relationship with Him.

Honor is the reward of virtue.

Opposition may become sweet to a man when he has christened it persecution.

Man, all lives matter.

A round man cannot be expected to fit in a square hole right away. He must have time to modify his shape.

A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.

This is the mark of a really admirable man: steadfastness in the face of trouble.

The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.

Oh the nerves, the nerves; the mysteries of this machine called man! Oh the little that unhinges it, poor creatures that we are!

Our greatness has always come from people who expect nothing and take nothing for granted – folks who work hard for what they have, then reach back and help others after them.

You’re born. You suffer. You die. Fortunately, there’s a loophole.

The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

No sane man will dance.

Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true.

Nothing is more gratifying to the mind of man than power or dominion.

What every genuine philosopher (every genuine man, in fact) craves most is praise although the philosophers generally call it recognition!

It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.

It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.

A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.

Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable.

If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.

I’ve seen firsthand that being president doesn’t change who you are. It reveals who you are.

One can know a man from his laugh, and if you like a man’s laugh before you know anything of him, you may confidently say that he is a good man.

In the consciousness of the truth he has perceived, man now sees everywhere only the awfulness or the absurdity of existence and loathing seizes him.

Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.

I don’t see how people are comfortable with seeing other people be great. You can be happy for anybody, but what is your excuse to not want to be great? These people are great because they just say, ‚I’ma do that,‘ and they do it. That’s it. There’s no scientifical process.

A man’s character is his guardian divinity.

I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.

It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other.

A bore is a person who opens his mouth and puts his feats in it.

No man was ever great by imitation.

Man’s unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his greatness; it is because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the Finite.

A clever, ugly man every now and then is successful with the ladies, but a handsome fool is irresistible.

We are born at a given moment, in a given place and, like vintage years of wine, we have the qualities of the year and of the season of which we are born. Astrology does not lay claim to anything more.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.

Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in the character. When there is beauty in the character, there is harmony in the home. When there is harmony in the home, there is order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world.

The deed is everything, the glory is naught.

There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they laugh at.

But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?