What defines greatness?

[Contemporary Protestant]

Like what is the line between ordinary and great? Who would you consider great?

Some people I really admire are Gandhi, Confucius, Che, Leon Trotsky

Not that I agree with every single thing they did, but I can't help but admire them

[The Skeletal Atheist]

Greatness: noun. The Skeletal Atheist.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

The really, really sad news,... You would have to see through my eyes and look in the mirror to gaze upon greatness, but since you can't you'll never really know greatness.

[Jason78]

Some people I really admire are Gandhi

Gandhi was great!   Do you know how many young women he slept with?

[Contemporary Protestant]

A lot

He claims it was to test his self control, I'm not convinced

[stromboli]

Greatness is rising to the occasion when the situation requires it.

[Solitary]

The really, really sad news,... You would have to see through my eyes and look in the mirror to gaze upon greatness, but since you can't you'll never really know greatness.

You never let me down to make my day. Thanks! Solitary

[stromboli]

Men put themselves in the position to challenge the status quo, and sometimes you get Gandhi and Confucius. But greatness happens every day when people stand up to bullies or confront stupidity at any level. It is only a matter of degree. Great people are all around you, if you simply look. People risk their lives for the sake of others all the time. People stand up against backward ideologies all the time. They don't make the history books, but they exhibit greatness nonetheless.

[aitm]

whats that quote? Some people strive for greatness and some have it thrust upon them? Or something like that.

[PickelledEggs]

Gandhi was great!   Do you know how many young women he slept with?

A lot

He claims it was to test his self control, I'm not convinced

So that's where "make love, not war" came from.....

[Green Bottle]

Ghandi was a great man yes and the fact that he slept with a lot of women doesnt change that fact....

 

You never let me down to make my day. Thanks! Solitary

Men put themselves in the position to challenge the status quo, and sometimes you get Gandhi and Confucius. But greatness happens every day when people stand up to bullies or confront stupidity at any level. It is only a matter of degree. Great people are all around you, if you simply look. People risk their lives for the sake of others all the time. People stand up against backward ideologies all the time. They don't make the history books, but they exhibit greatness nonetheless.

i agree , there are many ppl who do great things every day all over the world and most of them neither seek nor receive publicity for their actions..

One man i admire greatly is William Wallace , who fought long and hard to free Scotland from English domination but paid the ultimate price in the end....

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Greatness is really subjective. Some people think Budwieser is great while I think of it as shit water.

[stromboli]

Ghandi was a great man yes and the fact that he slept with a lot of women doesnt change that fact....
 

i agree , there are many ppl who do great things every day all over the world and most of them neither seek nor receive publicity for their actions..

One man i admire greatly is William Wallace , who fought long and hard to free Scotland from English domination but paid the ultimate price in the end....

I agree, William Wallace was a great man. And I would love to see Scotland as an independent nation.

[GrinningYMIR]

I admire Big brother, because he's always watching out for you!

greatness is a matter of perspective, there are a few people out there that could be considered great, but who I consider great might be different from what APA or Bill Cosby consider great. It all depends on your personal definition

[aitm]

Greatness, like everything else, like some suggest, is relative. My father, for instance, is a nobody, never graduated high school, just an average mason, had six kids that he struggled to raise, wife was a stay at home like they all were back then. But he got involved, was elected to the local school board, spent 16 years on our own school board and 32 years as president of the county school district. Two years after he retired from the local district some of the more prominent townsfolk asked him to run again... when he declined, the people at large scratched off the names and wrote his in the ballot instead. He "won" by a landslide though not legal, the two guys who were running for the position did not argue and the vote was upheld and Dad said he would accept and stayed on for two more years. Though not a "great" man...to me, that is what "greatness" is all about.

I am not arrogant enough to call my father a GREAT man. But I am knowledgeable enough to know he was a great MAN.