Great Quotes

Great quotes are those that just seem to stick around. They don't necessarily have to be from anyone famous; just meaningful words at that point in time. For instance, I was at a funeral a while back. It was held at a small funeral home in rural Mississippi. The services started and we were in for a treat - there were two preachers preaching this funeral. The first, a young guy making his mark on the spiritual world did a fair job eulogizing. But the second man, an older and more seasoned fellow, left me with words that stuck like glue and made me want to burst out laughing. From my experience, in the Evangelical world especially Protestant religions, presentation is worth over 60% of the available quality points in any given sermon. I am not mocking them; it is just true. Many great quotes there! Anyway, presentation is the glue of the service that binds. Brother Senn (I found this last name quite ironical for a preacher as it is pronounced Sin) began by discussing everyone's destiny. The end of their mortal lives and the beinning of a new and eternal one. The only catch was expressed in Brother Senn's next words: "When you get to the gates of heaven, God will not ask whether you have been dunked, bathed, splashed, or sprinkled. He will simply ask, 'Do you know My Son, Jesus Christ?'" I wish that I could have taped that message because no matter your religious affiliation (if any) you would have remembered those words simply because he presented it so well. The volume changes, the meter ... everything was on the mark. Those are great quotes!

That was quite a excursion to introduce this category of great quotes wasn't it? Anyway, these great quotes are ones that seem to be good no matter how long they have been around or who said them. You will find may famous names in the list below and then there are others that you have probably never heard of. This section is similar to our Good Quotes. You may want to also try our "hot quotes" from the menu to the right for some more excellent ... or great quotes and sayings.

Check out our Famous Movie Quotes while you are looking around. We have some really great ones! Also, look at our Quote of the Day listings for the last week and join our mailing list! Each weekday you will receive a new quote in your email. If you have a web site, check out how to link to QuoteMountain.com from your web site. There are options for free content using our quotes. Have our Quote of the Day displayed on your site! You can either link to our home page or to a specific topical area of interest. It's all there. Have fun and enjoy the quotes!

very great quotes

We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.
-- George Bernard Shaw

A good metaphor is something even the police should keep an eye on.
-- G. C. Lichtenberg

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason so few engage in it.
-- Henry Ford

No man can climb out beyond the limitations of his own character.
-- John Morley

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher strates. The great teacher inspires.
-- William Arthur Ward

In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.
-- Robert Green Ingersoll

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
-- Oscar Wilde

Time is but the stream I go fishing in. I drink at it, but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. It's thin current slides away, but eternity remains.
-- Henry David Thoreau

What makes saintliness in my view, as distinguished from ordinary goodness, is a certain quality of magnanimity and greatness of soul that brings life within the circle of the heroic.
-- Harriet Beecher Stowe

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

The family is one of nature's masterpieces.
-- George Santayana

Smartness runs in my family. When I went to school I was so smart my teacher was in my class for five years.
-- George Burns

Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.
-- G. K. Chesterton

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
-- Winston Churchill

The family you come from isn't as important as the family you're going to have.
-- Ring Lardner

The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.
-- Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton

Not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, does the enlightened man dislike to wade into its waters.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right.
-- Confucius

The moral duty to be expected in different ages is not a unity of standard, or of acts, but a unity of tendency. At one time the benevolent affections embrace merely the family, soon the circle expanding includes first a class, then a nation, then a coalition of nations, then all humanity and finally, its influence is felt in the dealings of man with the animal world.
-- Source Unknown

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on.
-- Robert Frost

I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
one Nation under God, indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.
-- Francis Bellamy

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
-- Voltaire

There is nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer.
-- Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle