WIST Quotations

Carlyle, Thomas -- (Spurious)

Dave — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 23:04:44 +0000

A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
(Spurious)
(Source)

Attributed with this wording to Carlyle by Dale Carnegie in How to Win Friends And Influence People, ch. 1 (1936). Though Carlyle wrote numerous times on character and greatness, this phrase (or variants of it) cannot be found in Carlyle's known works.

The earliest attribution of something like this to Carlyle comes from a sermon by John Timothy Stone at the Northfield Young Women's Conference (1908-07-07): "You can discover a great man, or see a great man, by the way he treats little men."

It subsequently shows up, variously, mostly in religious contexts, e.g.:

"A great man shows his greatness by manner in which he treats little men." [Unattributed (1913)]
"The measure of a great man is the way in which he treats little men." [George E. Mayer (1916-05-25)]

John Timothy Stone (as above) published Christianity in Action (1930), six years before Carnegie's book. In ch. 62 "Friends as You Go," he used the same phrasing Carnegie did six years later, again attributing it to Carlyle. It's been suggested Carnegie drew the quotation from Stone's book.

See also Eldridge (1948), which discusses numerous parallels to this sentiment.

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-06-26), The Spectator, No. 101

Dave — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 21:31:43 +0000

If men of eminence are exposed to censure on one hand, they are as much liable to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches which are not due to them, they likewise receive praises which they do not deserve. In a word, the man in a high post is never regarded with an indifferent eye, but always considered as a friend or an enemy. For this reason persons in great stations have seldom their true characters drawn till several years after their deaths. Their personal friendships and enmities must cease, and the parties they were engaged in be at an end, before their faults or their virtues can have justice done them. When writers have the least opportunity of knowing the truth, they are in the best disposition to tell it.
It is therefore the privilege of posterity to adjust the characters of illustrious persons, and to set matters right between those antagonists who by their rivalry for greatness divided a whole age into factions.

Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-06-26), The Spectator, No. 101
(Source)

The last line is sometimes shortened to:

It is the privilege of posterity to set matters right between those antagonists who, by their rivalry for greatness, divided a whole age.

Hoffer, Eric -- Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 276 (1955)

Dave — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 17:10:13 +0000

A great man’s greatest good luck is to die at the right time.

Eric Hoffer (1902–1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 276 (1955)
(Source)

Also see Rogers (1928), Muggeridge (1972).

Johnson, Samuel -- Essay (1754-01-19), The Adventurer, No. 126

Dave — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 16:33:10 +0000

But there is a higher order of men so inspired with ardour, and so fortified with resolution, that the world passes before them without influence or regard: these ought to consider themselves as appointed the guardians of mankind: they are placed in an evil world, to exhibit publick examples of good life; and may be said, when they withdraw to solitude, to desert the station which Providence assigned them.

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1754-01-19), The Adventurer, No. 126
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-05), “The Hero as Divinity,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 22:33:32 +0000

No sadder proof can be given by a man of his own littleness than disbelief in great men.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-05), “The Hero as Divinity,” Home House, Portman Square, London
(Source)

The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 1, (1841).

Moliere -- Don Juan [Dom Juan], Act 1, sc. 1 (1665) [tr. Waller (1904)]

Dave — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 21:07:37 +0000

SGANARELLE: But when a great lord is a wicked man, it is a terrible thing.

[Mais un grand seigneur méchant homme est une terrible chose.]

Molière (1622–1673) French playwright, actor [stage name for Jean-Baptiste Poquelin]
Don Juan [Dom Juan], Act 1, sc. 1 (1665) [tr. Waller (1904)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Other translations:

But a great Lord, a wicked Man, is a terrible thing.
[tr. Clitandre (1672)]

If a great lord is a wicked man it is a terrible thing.
[tr. Van Laun (1876)]

But if a great lord is also a wicked man, it is a terrible thing.
[tr. Wall (1879)]

But a wicked nobleman is a terrible thing.
[tr. Page (1908)]

But a great lord who is a wicked man is a terrible thing.
[tr. Frame (1967)]

But a wicked nobleman is a frightening master.
[tr. Bermel (1987)]

But a great lord who's a wicked man is a frightening thing.
[tr. Wilbur (2001)]

Sometimes rendered "What a terrible thing to be a great lord, yet a wicked man," though I could not find a good source for that phrasing, which is also attributed to Carlos Castañeda.

Billings, Josh -- Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 281 “Variety: Bred and Butter” (1874)

Dave — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 14:58:40 +0000

This haz alwus bin the rule, and alwus will be — no man iz grate unless he iz good.

[This has always been the rule, and always will be — no man is great unless he is good.]

Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 281 “Variety: Bred and Butter” (1874)
(Source)

La Bruyere, Jean de -- (Spurious)

Dave — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 01:16:27 +0000

The nearer we approach great men, the clearer we see that they are men. Barely do they appear great before their valets.

[Rarement ils sont grands vis-à-vis de leurs valets-de-chambre.]

Jean de La Bruyère (1645–1696) French essayist, moralist
(Spurious)

This passage, both English and French, is attributed to La Bruyere (and, more specifically, to his Characters [Les Caractères] (1688). It does not, however, appear in that work (in any translation or the native French) nor does it seem to appear in any other work of La Bruyere that I could find.

Both English and French show up in a passage in Samuel Arthur Bent, Short Sayings of Great Men (1882), about Mme. de Cornuel (d. 1694). Bent is discussing a quotation attributed to her, with parallels amongst Montaigne (1586) and Goethe (1805). (The passage is quoted at Bartleby.com, which may account for modern familiarity with it.) Bent cites the above from La Bruyere's Caractères.

Other versions, of each sentence, show up in quotations collections over the following decades, and today the French has a number of hits on Russian/Slavic websites, but nothing (not even on French search engines) that pins it to any source aside from the same pages in English language searches.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1858-04), “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 19:25:38 +0000

The world’s great men have not commonly been great scholars, nor great scholars great men.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1858-04), “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, ch. 6 (1858).