The main cause of unhappiness isn’t in the experience, but how you think and feel about it. So how about thinking awesome things…a lot…about everything. What if instead of seeing the flaws in others, all we saw was the greatness, the brilliance.
My Darling One and I decided some time ago that this would be our one new thing to experience this year…looking for and finding the greatness in others.
Yes, that includes the idiot drivers on the road, the difficult people we might meet, the bores, the loud mouths, the…well you get my point.
As you can see this is an important skill, highly relevant to our everyday life.
We just have to get a little better at it so that we don’t have to see these characteristics in ourselves because, truth be told, we know how life laws operate and we wouldn’t see the petty and the small or the great and the noble in others, unless it was in us too. Ouch!
We’re working on looking at everyone through the eyes of love.
Throughout the centuries our writers and poets and artists have found ways to cut through the hubub of life and put ideas that might be difficult to hear and understand, into simple words.
Words that reach us at our deepest level. Words that touch our soul and remind us of our very own greatness.
As you know I’m a big fan of quotes, and today I wanted to share 21 brilliant quotes on the greatness that you are, the greatness you have within you, the greatness that is yours for the taking, in my tiny attempt to let you see yourself through the eyes of love.
Here’s my rainbow of quotes and may you find a ray of sunshine or your very own pot of gold.
1. The great thing in this world is not so much where you stand, as in what direction you are moving. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes
2. If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way. ~ Napoleon Hill
3. Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion. ~ Jack Kerouac
5. Unless you choose to do great things with it, it makes no difference how much you are rewarded, or how much power you have. ~ Oprah Winfrey
6. There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the really great man is the man who makes every man feel great. ~ G. K. Chesterton
7. Everybody can be great… because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
8. You were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it fearlessly. ~ Steve Maraboli
9. You were born with potential. You were born with goodness and trust. You were born with ideals and dreams. You were born with greatness. You were born with wings. You are not meant for crawling, so don’t. You have wings. Learn to use them and fly. ~ Rumi
11. Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. ~ Mark Twain
12. Our key to greatness lies in who we are which we can give to other people in a way that when they walk away from us, they are able to say in their hearts that they have taken away something with them quite extraordinary. ~ C. JoyBell C.
13. You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them. ~ Michael Jordan
15. Do not confuse notoriety and fame with greatness. . . . For you see, greatness is a measure of one’s spirit, not a result of one’s rank in human affairs. ~ Sherman Finesilver
16. The man capable of greatness of soul will open wide the windows of his mind, letting the winds blow freely upon it from every portion of the universe. ~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell
17. As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
18. Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us. ~ Wilma Rudolph
19. Man’s greatness lies in his power of thought. ~ Blaise Pascal
20. If a man has any greatness in him, it comes to light, not in one flamboyant hour, but in the ledger of his daily work. ~ Beryl Markham
21. Your greatness is revealed not by the lights that shine upon you, but by the light that shines within you. ~ Ray Davis
Do any of these quotes speak to you? Do you have any you’d like to share. We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Encourage one another.
Love Elle
xoxo
19 Comments
What a great list Elle. The quote that resonates with me the most is the one from Steve Maraboli. It is filled with so much hope and encouragement.
Alex
Welcome back Alex, I’ve missed you. The wonderful thing about quotes is that they are gentle reminders of who we are and what we can do and I often will use them as an affirmation for the day. A thought that I return to because it feels good. 🙂
Yes, this one. “There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the really great man is the man who makes every man feel great.” This reminds me of my friend who is a brilliant law professor, a graduate of Harvard Law School, the recipient of many honors and awards. If you met him, though, you would never know this unless someone else told you. He would be busy asking you about your life, always being supportive, helping however he could, being funny and friendly and humble. You would leave his company feeling great about yourself!
What a wonderful friend Galen. There are definitely people in this world who leave you feeling better than you did. They’re the people that ‘feel’ so good to be around, the encouragers of life. And to me, they’re worth their weight in gold. 🙂
Elle – Wonderful list. Never heard the Mark Twain quote ~ love it. Fran
Thank you Fran. It’s fascinating the different quotes that speak to different folks. I should take another look at them and see which one truly speaks to me. 🙂
Love quote collections and this is a fab list Elle!
Why thank you Sandi. I love quote collections too as you can no doubt tell. It seems I also love stating the obvious. Sigh. 🙂
Well, I somehow missed this one! Thanks for all the inspiration!! I’m going to write these down for future use and reference.
Thanks Elle!
These are so inspiring, Elle. My favorite is the one from Rumi. Seeing the greatness in others is a sublime aspiration.
Hi Sandra, love Rumi too. What a wonderful enlightened soul. 🙂
My favorite of those above is “do not confuse greatness with notoriety and fame.” So many people are famous but have done nothing to help others with that fame.
One of my very favorite quotes (I actually have a journal filled with them) is: “The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.” –Marianne Williamson
Hello Pamela – what a cool idea to have a journal filled with quotes. It sounds like a new practice I would like to follow…thanks for the inspiration. And I love the Marianne Williamson quote too. 🙂
I’m so glad you like that idea! It’s such an encouragement to me to go back and see cool quotes I found forever ago. They don’t lose any meaning over time either. It’s great 🙂
I STARTED SAVING QUOTATIONS IN THE FOURTH GRADE. AS A FORMER TEACHER WHO STARTED EACH DAY WITH A QUOTE ON
MY BLACKBOARD. I CONTINUE WITH MY QUOTES TUTORING HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENTS FOR THE COLLEGE BOARDS, SAT, PSAT
AND ACT. MY STUDENTS ARE MAXIMIZING THEIR MINDS WITH THE MINDFUL QUOTES EACH DAY. YOUR QUOTES ARE SO APT
FOF THIS GENERATION, SINCE THEY DO NOT ENJOY READING. I WOULD LIKE TO RECOMMEND THE ALCHEMIST …THEN LOOK
UP THE AUTHOR’S BEAUTIFUL QUOTATIONS…A LIFE TIME EXPERIENCE,
This is what the people need to know every day of there life. Thanks so much for this messages more grace to your elbow
really speaking you contributed best and brilliant which can touch every body heart!!
happiness is finding peace within yourself.
great quotes
thank you for sharing
Yes it is dear one. 🙂