A quotation from Joseph Addison

   If men of eminence are exposed to censure on one hand, they are as much liable to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches which are not due to them, they likewise receive praises which they do not deserve. In a word, the man in a high post is never regarded with an indifferent eye, but always considered as a friend or an enemy. For this reason persons in great stations have seldom their true characters drawn till several years after their deaths. Their personal friendships and enmities must cease, and the parties they were engaged in be at an end, before their faults or their virtues can have justice done them. When writers have the least opportunity of knowing the truth, they are in the best disposition to tell it.
   It is therefore the privilege of posterity to adjust the characters of illustrious persons, and to set matters right between those antagonists who by their rivalry for greatness divided a whole age into factions.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-06-26), The Spectator, No. 101

More about this quote: wist.info/addison-joseph/83215…

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A quotation from Eric Hoffer

A great man’s greatest good luck is to die at the right time.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 276 (1955)

More about this quote: wist.info/hoffer-eric/82838/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #erichoffer #death #decline #dying #greatness #hero #history #mortality #posterity #potential #timeliness #goodtiming #timing #greatman #greatperson

A quotation from Josh Billings

This haz alwus bin the rule, and alwus will be — no man iz grate unless he iz good.
 
[This has always been the rule, and always will be — no man is great unless he is good.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 281 “Variety: Bred and Butter” (1874)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/billings-josh/77316/

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A quotation from Bertrand Russell

The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Conquest of Happiness, Part 1, ch. 1 “What Makes People Unhappy?” (1930)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/russell-bertrand/757…

#quote #quotes #quotation #ego #fear #fearsomeness #greatman #greatness #history #lunacy #madness #megalomania #narcissism #power

John Lewis. #painting #art #acrylic #johnlewis #politics #greatman

A quotation from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

The world’s great men have not commonly been great scholars, nor great scholars great men.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1858-04), “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/holmes-sr-oliver-wen…

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Sad that #CaptainVijayakanth is no more.
A #greatman who ensured that anyone who came to visit him had a hearty #meal first.
Providing this daily for years shows a #nobleheart.
#Restinpeace, Sir.
#Actor #Captain #PuratchiKalaignar #Politician #NadigarSangam

http://bit.ly/3R7WXqu
Classical view of #History considers that historical events are due to the providential appearance of a #GreatMan.
Despite hero theory, all this rests on the #Philosophy of #Hegel, that great man who is mortal and perishable is a "incarnation" of "idea" that is eternal and immobile.History would be nothing more than biographies and lists of dates of births, battles and deaths.
Xix century is also that of #Romanticism, which in #Europe gave rise to #Nationalism.