Spanking Jack was so comely, so pleasant, so jolly,

Though winds blew great guns, still he 'd whistle and sing;

Jack loved his friend, and was true to his Molly,

And if honour gives greatness, was great as a king.

Charles Dibdin (1745-1814): The Sailor's Consolation.

He that holds fast the golden mean,

And lives contentedly between

The little and the great,

Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,

Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door.

William Cowper (1731-1800): Translation of Horace. Book ii. Ode x.

Great Caesar fell.

O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!

Then I, and you, and all of us fell down,

Whilst bloody treason flourish'd over us.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act iii. Sc. 2.

Conjure with 'em,—

Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Caesar.

Now, in the names of all the gods at once,

Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed,

That he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed!

Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act i. Sc. 2.

They never fail who die

In a great cause.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Marino Faliero. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Great contest follows, and much learned dust.

William Cowper (1731-1800): The Task. Book iii. The Garden. Line 161.

Great families of yesterday we show,

And lords, whose parents were the Lord knows who.

Daniel Defoe (1663-1731): The True-Born Englishman. Part i. Line 1.

Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate,

Beneath the good how far,—but far above the great.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): The Progress of Poesy. III. 3, Line 16.

Thou great First Cause, least understood.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Universal Prayer. Stanza 2.

So, naturalists observe, a flea

Has smaller fleas that on him prey;

And these have smaller still to bite 'em;

And so proceed ad infinitum.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745): Poetry, a Rhapsody.

Wert thou all that I wish thee, great, glorious, and free,

First flower of the earth and first gem of the sea.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852): Remember Thee.

Unbounded courage and compassion join'd,

Tempering each other in the victor's mind,

Alternately proclaim him good and great,

And make the hero and the man complete.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719): The Campaign. Line 219.

Spanking Jack was so comely, so pleasant, so jolly,

Though winds blew great guns, still he 'd whistle and sing;

Jack loved his friend, and was true to his Molly,

And if honour gives greatness, was great as a king.

Charles Dibdin (1745-1814): The Sailor's Consolation.

Ill can he rule the great that cannot reach the small.

Edmund Spenser (1553-1599): Faerie Queene. Book v. Canto ii. St. 43.

The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers,

And heavily in clouds brings on the day,

The great, the important day, big with the fate

Of Cato and of Rome.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719): Cato. Act i. Sc. 1.

Your name is great

In mouths of wisest censure.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Othello. Act ii. Sc. 3.

Thou slave, thou wretch, thou coward!

Thou little valiant, great in villany!

Thou ever strong upon the stronger side!

Thou Fortune's champion that dost never fight

But when her humorous ladyship is by

To teach thee safety.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King John. Act iii. Sc. 1.

Great let me call him, for he conquered me.

Edward Young (1684-1765): The Revenge. Act i. Sc. 1.

Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;

Still by himself abused or disabused;

Created half to rise, and half to fall;

Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;

Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled,—

The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 13.

Three stories high, long, dull, and old,

As great lords' stories often are.

George Colman, The Younger (1762-1836): The Maid of the Moor.

The proverbe saith that many a smale maketh a grate.

Geoffrey Chaucer (1328-1400): Canterbury Tales. Persones Tale.

Many small make a great.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.

As if Misfortune made the throne her seat,

And none could be unhappy but the great.

Nicholas Rowe (1673-1718): The Fair Penitent. Prologue.

None think the great unhappy but the great.

Edward Young (1684-1765): Love of Fame. Satire i. Line 238.

The heart ran o'er

With silent worship of the great of old!

The dead but sceptred sovereigns, who still rule

Our spirits from their urns.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Manfred. Act iii. Sc. 4.

No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,

Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,

The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,

Become them with one half so good a grace

As mercy does.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Measure for Measure. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Rightly to be great

Is not to stir without great argument,

But greatly to find quarrel in a straw

When honour's at the stake.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 4.

Men are we, and must grieve when even the shade

Of that which once was great is passed away.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic.

Some must be great. Great offices will have

Great talents. And God gives to every man

The virtue, temper, understanding, taste,

That lifts him into life, and lets him fall

Just in the niche he was ordain'd to fill.

William Cowper (1731-1800): The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 788.

Great truths are portions of the soul of man;

Great souls are portions of eternity.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891): Sonnet vi.

As ever in my great Taskmaster's eye.

John Milton (1608-1674): On his being arrived to the Age of Twenty-three.

There is no great and no small

To the Soul that maketh all;

And where it cometh, all things are;

And it cometh everywhere.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882): Essays. First Series. Epigraph to History.

To compare

Great things with small.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 921.

Fair Greece! sad relic of departed worth!

Immortal, though no more! though fallen, great!

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto ii. Stanza 73.

Great thoughts, great feelings came to them,

Like instincts, unawares.

Richard Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton) (1809-1885): The Men of Old.

As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns

As the rapt seraph that adores and burns:

To Him no high, no low, no great, no small;

He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all!

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 277.

These little things are great to little man.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Traveller. Line 42.

Great truths are portions of the soul of man;

Great souls are portions of eternity.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891): Sonnet vi.

These be the great Twin Brethren

To whom the Dorians pray.

Thomas B Macaulay (1800-1859): The Battle of Lake Regillus.

None think the great unhappy but the great.

Edward Young (1684-1765): Love of Fame. Satire i. Line 238.

Hence, ye profane! I hate ye all,

Both the great vulgar and the small.

Abraham Cowley (1618-1667): Horace. Book iii. Ode 1.

They 're only truly great who are truly good.

George Chapman (1557-1634): Revenge for Honour. Act v. Sc. 2.

Great wits are sure to madness near allied,

And thin partitions do their bounds divide.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Absalom and Achitophel. Part i. Line 163.