"The measure of great men should always..." - Quote by Francois De La Rochefoucauld
The measure of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it.
More by Francois De La Rochefoucauld
More on Greatness
“That nation is great which rests its head upon death as its pillow.”
“A great man leaves clean work behind him, and requires no sweeper up of the chips.”
“I am interested only in the relations of a people to the rearing of the individual man, and among the Greeks the conditions were unusually favourable for the development of the individual; not by any means owing to the goodness of the people, but because of the struggles of their evil instincts.With the help of favourable measures great individuals might be reared who would be both different from and higher than those who heretofore have owed their existence to mere chance. Here we may still be hopeful: in the rearing of exceptional men.”
More on Ethics
“f the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go; perchance it will wear smooth - certainly the machine will wear out... but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.”
“Really great moral teachers never do introduce new moralities: it is quacks and cranks who do that.”
“We are the living graves of murdered beasts, slaughtered to satisfy our appetites. How can we hope in this world to attain the peace we say we are so anxious for?”