QUALITIES OF GREAT PERSONS
Great
persons are rare. They are born, not made. Their qualities are numerous as well
as admirable. Whoever is great has such physical, mental, moral and spiritual abilities
as are a good deal above average in number
and intensity.
Wealth,
rank, authority, supremacy, sovereignty, dynastic inheritance, and
materialistic power, etc. do not make a man genuinely great.
Great
men are charismatic, dynamic, creative, optimistic, visionary, progressive, co-operative,
confident, enthusiastic, inspiring, steadfast, courageous, kind-hearted,
humble, merciful, selfless, charitable, flexible, fair-minded, intelligent,
wise, truthful, prudent, compassionate, sincere, loyal, trustworthy, and resilient.
The
German statesman Otto Eduard Bismarck (1815-98) said : A really great man is known by three
signs --- generosity in the design, humanity in the execution, moderation in
success.
The
American clergy William Ellery Channing (1780-1842) believed that the greatest
man is he who chooses the right with invincible resolution; who resists the
sorest temptations from within and without; who bears the heaviest burdens
cheerfully; who is calmest in storms, and most fearless under menace and
frowns; and whose reliance on truth, on virtue, and on God, is most
unfaltering.
The
English writer and philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626) had this to say: Men
in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state,
servants of fame, and servants of business; so that they have no freedom,
neither in their persons, in their actions, nor in their times.---It is a strange
desire to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man’s self.
Finally,
this short quote on greatness: Those who cannot feel the littleness of great
things in themselves are apt to overlook the greatness of little things in others.
********
G.R.Kanwal
19 August 2025
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