THE QUALITIES OF GREATNESS
What makes anybody great? Not
wealth. Not very high rank. Not lot of property. Not abundant knowledge. Not
long rulership. It is based upon
morality, godliness, charity, love, affection, tolerance, mercy, forgiveness, sympathy,
empathy, sharing, caring, self-denial, virtuousness, social welfare, humanism,
non-violence, peacefulness, belief in equality of people and nations, the
instinct for creating an environment of unity among all and sundry.
Indian emperor Asoka is called great
because he abandoned war, adopted measures of social welfare, and became father to his people.
The Greek ruler Alexander is called great because of his military genius
and expansion of Greek civilization from one end of the world to another within
a very short time.
The Mughal emperor Akbar is called
great for his attributes of tolerance and socio-political reforms. He won the
trust and faith of the non-Muslim population in his kingdom.
The German statesman Reich Otto von Bismarck
(1815-1898) believed that a really great
man is known by three signs ---generosity in the design, humanity in the
execution, moderation in success.
According to the American clergy
William Ellery Channing (1780-1842), known as the “Father of Unitarianism” :
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.
It is also true that greatness lies
not in being strong, but in the right using of strength; and strength is not
used rightly when it serves only to carry a man above his fellows for his own
solitary glory.
Lastly, this quote by the American
educator and writer James Mason Hoppin (1920-1906): A nation’s greatness
resides not in her material resources, but in her will, faith, intelligence,
and moral forces. *****
G.R.Kanwal
8th March 2026
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