James G. Frazer Quotes

Great men are among the best gifts which God bestows upon a people.

We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don’t like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary.

Great men hallow a whole people, and lift up all who live in their time.

Ordinary people need extraordinary examples.

No one knows how greatness comes to a man. It may lie in his blackness, sleeping, or it may lance into him like those driven fiery particles from outer space. These things, however, are known about greatness: need gives it life and puts it in action; it never comes without pain; it leaves a man changed, chastened, and exalted at the same time--he can never return to simplicity...

Great men need to be lifted upon the shoulders of the whole world, in order to conceive their great ideas or perform their great deeds. That is, there must be an atmosphere of greatness round about them. A hero cannot be a hero unless in an heroic world.

Let the world admire the supposed wisdom and valor of our great men, Perhaps they may adopt the qualities that have been ascribed to them, and thus good may be done.

All great men are partially inspired.

Great men exist that there might be greater men.

So much of what I do has been based off of my heroes and guys I've watched come up.

Little girls need someone to look up to - and little boys need strong women to look up to, as well. I don't think your heroes should be relegated to someone who's the same sex or from the same background as you. Little boys should grow up wanting to be like Serena Williams.

The greatest are an inspiration for all the kids who wake up early in the morning. Everyone watches you, is inspired by you and wants to be you. So you influence society. That's what being more than an athlete means. I want more kids to have that opportunity. I want everybody to start with the same chance.

I learned courage from Buddha, Jesus, Lincoln, Einstein, and Mr. Cary Grant.

Great men can't be ruled.

I think that there are many ways in which people look for heroes, messiahs, things like that in society. I think some people are looking for something that maybe they don't possess. To me, ultimately, you are looking for someone who understands you, or at least you think understands you. It all comes down to understanding for who we look to as heroes.

The age does not believe in great men, because it does not possess any.

Great men are but common men more fully developed and ripened.

Great men are but life-sized. Most of them, indeed, are rather short.

No age or condition is without its heroes . The least incapable general in a nation is its Cæsar, the least imbecile statesman its Solon , the least confused thinker its Socrates , the least commonplace poet its Shakespeare .

It is natural to admire and revere really great men. They hallow the nation to which they belong, and lift up not only all who live in their time, but those who live after them. Their great example becomes the common heritage of their race; and their great deeds and great thoughts are the most glorious legacies of mankind.

A nation without heroes is nothing.

We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers.

It is not obligatory for a generation to have great men.

Equality is what does not exist among mortals.