Misunderstood Quotes

To be great is to be misunderstood.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Related topics: Wisdom

Form follows function - that has been misunderstood.
Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.
- Frank Lloyd Wright

There is a secret wisdom-of-the-ages
that holds the key to breaking our
cycle of self-imposed suffering.
The secret wisdom is, "Life is not supposed to be fair."
This is not sad news. This is GLORIOUS news!
Life is not broken. Nothing is wrong.
God has not failed, died, or gone on vacation.
The world is working perfectly. We just misunderstood.
Somewhere along the way, someone got the idea that
life was "supposed" to be "fair,"
and all the trouble started -
expectation, disappointment, resentment, anger -
a whole cycle of suffering that began
with the belief that life is "supposed" to be "fair."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Silence is a source of great strength.
- Lao Tzu

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Thank you for joining me on this journey we call life,
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To the young child, all life is a great adventure -
when did we grow so dull and brittle.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

If a man is called to be a street sweeper,
he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted,
or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry.
He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts
of heaven and earth will pause to say,
here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

The essence of life is not in
the great victories and grand failures,
but in the simple joys.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Where there is great love,
there are always miracles.
- Willa Cather

My great concern is not whether you have failed,
but whether you are content with your failure.
- Abraham Lincoln

I have decided to stick with love.
Hate is too great a burden to bear.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones,
as the wind blows out the candle and blows up the bonfire.
- Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Great works are performed not by strength,
but by perseverance.
- Samuel Johnson

That some achieve great success,
is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.
- Abraham Lincoln

A great secret of success is to go through life
as a man who never gets used up.
- Albert Schweitzer

To be conscious that you are ignorant
is a great step to knowledge.
- Benjamin Disraeli

Wealth consists not in having great possessions,
but in having few wants.
- Epictetus

Great leadership is not the visit of an unexpected fate
but rather a flame which is kept burning
in spite of the winds of risk and opposition.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,
adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. -
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

A great man is always willing to be little.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort,
and without it nothing great was ever achieved.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The only good luck many great men ever had was
being born with the ability and determination to overcome bad luck.
- Channing Pollock

Nurture your mind with great thoughts,
for you will never go any higher than you think.
- Benjamin Disraeli

It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies,
but even more to stand up to your friends.
- J.K. Rowling

The really great secret - Happiness is free.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Man becomes great exactly in the degree
in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Before we acquire great power
we must acquire wisdom to use it well.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Great indeed is the sublimity of the Creative,
to which all beings owe their beginning
and which permeates all heaven.
- Lao Tzu

Confidence is that feeling by which the mind embarks
in great and honorable courses
with a sure hope and trust in itself.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero

Great talents are the most lovely
and often the most dangerous
fruits on the tree of humanity.
They hang upon the most slender twigs
that are easily snapped off.
- Carl Jung

The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those
who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

After climbing a great hill,
one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
- Nelson Mandela

From small beginnings come great things.
- Anonymous

A little neglect may breed great mischief.
- Benjamin Franklin

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie,
deliberate, contrived and dishonest,
but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.
- John F. Kennedy

It is an act of great Courage to forsake all Blame.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Great men or men of great gifts
you shall easily find,
but symmetrical men never.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do the difficult things while they are easy
and do the great things while they are small.
A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
- Lao Tzu

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers,
who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt
to offer a solution everybody can understand.
- Colin Powell

The Universe is one great kindergarten for man.
Everything that exists has brought
with it its own peculiar lesson.
- Orison Swett Marden

To be oneself is a rare thing, and a great one.
- Ursula K. Le Guin

There are trivial truths and there are great truths.
The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false.
The opposite of a great truth is also true.
- Niels Bohr

Great oaks from little acorns grow.
- Proverb

To accomplish great things,
we must not only act, but also dream;
not only plan, but also believe.
- Anatole France

About leadership: No person can be a great leader
unless he takes genuine joy
in the successes of those under him.
- W. A. Nance

Great minds have purposes others have wishes.
- Washington Irving

Love is the great miracle cure.
Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives.
- Louise L. Hay

Confidence is the most important single factor in this game,
and no matter how great your natural talent,
there is only one way to obtain and sustain it: work.
- Jack Nicklaus

One of the surest ways to cause
yourself great suffering
is to insist upon being right -
to demand that all others view life
exactly as you view it.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

If a warrior is to succeed at anything,
the success must come gently,
with a great deal of effort but with no stress or obsession.
- Carlos Castaneda

All difficult things have
their origin in that which is easy,
and great things in that which is small.
- Lao Tzu

No crime is so great as daring to excel.
- Winston Churchill

Great spirits have always encountered
violent opposition from mediocre minds.
- Albert Einstein

All great truths begin as blasphemies.
- George Bernard Shaw

You're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So... get on your way!
- Dr. Seuss

Dare to dream of your great success.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.
- John D. Rockefeller

Thinking is necessary, but not sufficient, for living a great life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

These are the keys to a great life...
taking oneself lightly, forgiveness, and acceptance.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

No great thing is created suddenly.
- Epictetus

The water in a vessel is sparkling;
the water in the sea is dark.
The small truth has words which are clear;
the great truth has great silence.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Being is the great explainer.
- Henry David Thoreau

He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak.
Strong convictions precede great actions.
- Louisa May Alcott

In this life we cannot do great things.
We can only do small things with great love.
- Mother Teresa

You will become as small as your controlling desire;
as great as your dominant aspiration.
- James Allen

Character is higher than intellect.
A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

All the great things are simple,
and many can be expressed in a single word:
freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
- Winston Churchill

Keep courage. Whatever you do,
do not feel sorry for yourself.
You will win in a great age of opportunity.
- Richard L. Evans

The wicked leader is he who the people despise.
The good leader is he who the people revere.
The great leader is he who the people say, "We did it ourselves."
- Lao Tzu

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
- Samuel Johnson

Little strokes,
Fell great oaks.
- Benjamin Franklin

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May the world be kind to you, and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie