George F. Kennan Quotes

What do I know of man's destiny? I could tell you more about radishes.

I am simple, complex, generous, selfish, unattractive, beautiful, lazy, and driven.

He is truly great who is little in his own eyes and makes nothing of the highest

I would not take for granted that my personal life - because I knew better than anybody - that it was just a life. It was surprisingly an ordinary life.

I'm no saint. I'm no angel. I never proclaimed to be.

I am just one human being.

Success comes to those who dedicate everything to their passion in life. To be successful, it is also very important to be humble and never let fame or money travel to your head.

Life is a long lesson in humility.

I was suited for fame, and I mean that in the most non-egocentric way. I don't mind gearing my life towards privacy. It's my nature.

The best that can be said of my life so far is that it has been industrious, and the best that can be said of me is that I have not pretended to what I was not.

People have always thought of me as being something, but I'm just a human being like everyone else.

I am a person who always tries not to be easily influenced by position or achievement. I thank God for the fact that I can share more kindness and a good quality of life through the popularity. Not for the popularity itself.

I didn't want to escape my life and become a big actress and live my dreams. That was never the way it was; it was just these amazing opportunities that happened.

Humble people, I've found, don't get very far.

A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all-knowing and therefore all of us need both love and charity.

I'm a human just like anyone else, and I understand that, so at the end of the day, you've got to stay humble.

Fame is a weird thing. I think maybe I learned to never get too big for your boots. Keep your feet on the ground and keep your head down and work hard - that's probably what I learned from my parents more than anything. Remain generous and kind, and have humility.

I will be small in small things, great among great.

We have the pleasures suitable to our lot; let us not usurp those of greatness. Ours are more natural and all the more solid and sure for being humbler. Since we will not do so out of conscience, at least out of ambition let us reject ambition.

One couldn't carry on life comfortably without a little blindness to the fact that everything has been said better than we can put it ourselves.

He who stays not in his littleness, loses his greatness.

I decline the election. It has ever been my rule through life, to observe a proportion between my efforts and my objects. I have never been remarkable for a bold, active, and sanguine pursuit of advantages that are personal to myself.

Of the opinions of philosophy I most gladly embrace those that are most solid, that is to say, most human and most our own; my opinions, in conformity with my conduct, are low and humble.

Christian humility does not consist in denying what there is of good in us; but in an abiding sense of ill-desert, and in the consciousness that what we have of good is due to the grace of God.