Unrecognized Greatness Quotes

The great are not famous, and the famous are not great

Everybody denies I am a genius - but nobody ever called me one!

I will not go so far as to say, with a living poet, that the world knows nothing of its greatest men; but there are forms of greatness, or at least of excellence, which "die and make no sign"; there are martyrs that miss the palm, but not the stake; heroes without the laurel, and conquerors without the triumph.

There are great actors we'll never see just because they haven't had my luck.

Many incredible artists die before they were famous.

Among those people not graduating, there might be a Steve Jobs or Barack Obama. We'll never know.

A person of your century: Great persons are of their time. Not all were born into a period worthy of them, and many so born failed to benefit by it. Some merited a better century, for all that is good does not always triumph. Fashions have their periods and even the greatest virtues, their styles. But the philosopher, being ageless, has one advantage: Should this not prove the right century, many to follow will.

O my God, how does it happen in this poor world that you are so great and yet nobody finds you, that you call so loudly and yet nobody hears you, that you are so near and yet nobody feels you, that you give yourself to everybody and yet nobody knows your name? Men flee from you and say they cannot find you; they turn their backs and say they cannot see you; they stop their ears and say they cannot hear you.

Often it was the most unlikely people who found within themselves a spark of something greater. It was probably always there, but most people are never tested, and they go through their whole lives without ever knowing that when things are at their worst, they are at their best.

The best live among us in disguise.

All people have the common desire to be elevated in honour, but all people have something still more elevated in themselves without knowing it.

Lincoln had bad press, too. He wasn't appreciated until after he was gone.

Effort makes some great men famous. Even greater effort enables other great men to remain unknown.

Everyone has the power for greatness, not for fame but greatness, because greatness is determined by service.

When you're a young player, and you're starting to scratch your potential, you don't know how good you can be.

If we marvel at the artist who has written a great book, we must marvel more at those people whose lives are works of art and who don't even know it, who wouldn't believe it if they were told. However hard work good writing may be, it is easier than good living.

I felt like it was inevitable that I was going to fail in life and die young. So I was frantically scrambling to document my stunts and pack my message into a bottle. I thought maybe I could be discovered after I'd died, like Van Gogh.

I'm one of these people who tends to think that the ordinary people are more fascinating than the celebrities and even the politicians.

There have been as great souls unknown to fame as any of the most famous.

Unsung, the noblest deed will die.

Who knows whether the best of men be known? or whether there be not more remarkable persons forgot, than any that stand remembered in the known account of time?

Are not our greatest men as good as lost? The men that walk daily among us, warming us, feeding us, walk shrouded in darkness, mere mythic men.

Everybody is so talented nowadays that the only people I care to honor as deserving real distinction are those who remain in obscurity.

Future is my brother. He has no idea how big what he does is.