Anthony Trollope Quotes

I want to get more and more sophisticated. I'm ready to go from being a kid to being a king.

Great men always pay deference to greater.

You look up when you wish to be exalted. And I look down because I am exalted.

My favorite leader is George Washington. Because he came from very modest circumstances. He wasn't the son of a plantation owner. He was the son of a farmer. He had no formal education, very frustrated. He started writing a diary when he was in his teens, and he wrote things like, "When I grow up, I want to be respected. When I grow up, I want to be successful. When I grow up, I want to know things." What I find fascinating about Washington is he wanted to make something of himself.

A servant cannot be greater than his master.

A really great man has always an idea of something greater than himself.

I want to dominate a little more, just be a level beyond everyone else. I expect that from myself.

Authority is not a quality one person 'has', in the sense that he has property or physical qualities. Authority refers to an interpersonal relation in which one person looks upon another as somebody superior to him.

I never had a driving ambition to be a star.

And I believe we need heroes, I believe we need certain people who we can measure our own shortcomings by.

One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent.

I think when you begin to think of yourself as having achieved something, then there's nothing left for you to work towards. I want to believe that there is a mountain so high that I will spend my entire life striving to reach the top of it.

Authority doesn't work without prestige, or prestige without distance.

I don't ever want to feel complacent.

True humility is intelligent self respect which keeps us from thinking too highly or too meanly of ourselves. It makes us modest by reminding us how far we have come short of what we can be.

Humility was an important part of the way I grew up. And I found that to be less common when I moved to California. That's not to say humble people don't exist there, but ambition seems really important.

High aims form high characters, and great objects bring out great minds.

It is right to be contented with what we have, never with what we are.

We have to give value to authority. We have to give value to office, being in office, holding office.

Sometimes when people ask you to do things you think you are above, you need to evaluate why you think you are above it.

I can't even begin to visualize myself as a five-star general... When I think of the people who are five-star generals, I can't even see myself standing in their shadow.

I do see your point, but to me, I'm just a mouse compared to the President of the United States.

Great ambition, the desire of real superiority, of leading and directing, seems to be altogether peculiar to man, and speech is the great instrument of ambition.

Things can change only through strong personalities. I am not very good at supporting ignorance and mediocrity, so maybe this leads to arrogant gestures and arrogant responses. So, nobody's perfect.

The faults of a superior person are like the sun and moon. They have their faults, and everyone sees them; they change and everyone looks up to them.