„Nature's great masterpiece, an elephant;
the only harmless great thing.“

„Our imagination is struck only by what is great; but the lover of natural philosophy should reflect equally on little things.“

—  Alexander von Humboldt Prussian geographer, naturalist and explorer 1769 - 1859

Equinoctial Regions of America (1814-1829)

„To a great experience one thing is essential — an experiencing nature.“

—  Walter Bagehot British journalist, businessman, and essayist 1826 - 1877

Shakespeare
Literary Studies (1879)

„The heart of a father is the masterpiece of nature. “

—  Antoine François Prévost French novelist 1697 - 1763

„When Nature her great masterpiece designed,
And framed her last, best work, the human mind,
Her eye intent on all the wondrous plan,
She formed of various stuff the various Man.“

—  Robert Burns Scottish poet and lyricist 1759 - 1796

To Robert Graham, st. 1 (1791)

„Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.“

—  George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham English statesman and poet 1628 - 1687

John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby "An Essay on Poetry", line 2; cited from The Poetical Works of the Most Noble John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham (Edinburg [sic]: Apollo Press, 1780) p. 281.
Misattributed in Temple Bar (February 1863) p. 377, and by Giga Quotes http://www.giga-usa.com/quotes/authors/george_villiers_a001.htm.
Misattributed

„Human nature with all its infirmities and depravation is still capable of great things.“

—  John Adams 2nd President of the United States 1735 - 1826

Letter to Abigail Adams (29 October 1775), published Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife, Vol. 1 (1841), ed. Charles Francis Adams, p. 72
1770s
Contesto: Human nature with all its infirmities and depravation is still capable of great things. It is capable of attaining to degrees of wisdom and goodness, which we have reason to believe, appear as respectable in the estimation of superior intelligences. Education makes a greater difference between man and man, than nature has made between man and brute. The virtues and powers to which men may be trained, by early education and constant discipline, are truly sublime and astonishing. Newton and Locke are examples of the deep sagacity which may be acquired by long habits of thinking and study.

„It's natural to feel fear. All great warriors are afraid. Only the stupid and the delusional are not…“

—  Rick Riordan, libro The House of Hades

Origine: The House of Hades

„They may fight against greatness in us who are the children of men, but can they conquer? Even if they should destroy us every one, what then? Would it save them? No! For greatness is abroad, not only in us, not only in the Food, but in the purpose of all things! It is in the nature of all things, it is part of space and time.“

—  H. G. Wells, libro The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth

The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth (1904)
Contesto: They may fight against greatness in us who are the children of men, but can they conquer? Even if they should destroy us every one, what then? Would it save them? No! For greatness is abroad, not only in us, not only in the Food, but in the purpose of all things! It is in the nature of all things, it is part of space and time. To grow and still to grow, from first to last that is Being, that is the law of life. What other law can there be?

„A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.“

—  Ralph Waldo Emerson American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803 - 1882

1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Friendship

„It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him.“

—  John Steinbeck American writer 1902 - 1968

„It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.“

—  Edmund Burke Anglo-Irish statesman 1729 - 1797

First Speech on the Conciliation with America (1774)

„The best art, and the only art which will ever lead to great results, must have for its basis the interpretation of beauty in nature.“

—  Ernest Flagg American architect 1857 - 1947

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)
Contesto: The best art, and the only art which will ever lead to great results, must have for its basis the interpretation of beauty in nature.<!-- Introduction

„If, for example, you are miserly by nature, you will never go beyond a certain limit; only generous souls attain greatness.“

—  Robert Greene, libro The 48 Laws of Power

Origine: The 48 Laws of Power

„All the great and beneficent operations of Nature are produced by slow and often imperceptible degrees. The work of destruction and devastation only is violent and rapid.“

—  Albert Pike, libro Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry

Origine: Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871), Ch. XIX : Grand Pontiff, p. 317

„Greatness by nature includes a power, but not a will to power.“

—  Martin Buber German Jewish Existentialist philosopher and theologian 1878 - 1965

Origine: Between Man and Man (1965), p. 150

„Sumner was the boy's ideal of greatness; the highest product of nature and art. The only fault of such a model was its superiority which defied imitation.“

—  Henry Adams journalist, historian, academic, novelist 1838 - 1918

Contesto: p>His superiority was, indeed, real and incontestable; he was the classical ornament of the anti-slavery party; their pride in him was unbounded, and their admiration outspoken.The boy Henry worshipped him, and if he ever regarded any older man as a personal friend, it was Mr. Sumner. The relation of Mr. Sumner in the household was far closer than any relation of blood. None of the uncles approached such intimacy. Sumner was the boy's ideal of greatness; the highest product of nature and art. The only fault of such a model was its superiority which defied imitation. To the twelve-year-old boy, his father, Dr. Palfrey, Mr. Dana, were men, more or less like what he himself might become; but Mr. Sumner was a different order — heroic.</p

„It is proof of a narrow mind when things worthy of esteem are distinguished from things worthy of love. Great minds naturally love whatever is worthy of their esteem.“

—  Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues French writer, a moralist 1715 - 1747

Origine: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 166.

„If you will stay close to nature, to its simplicity, to the small things hardly noticeable, those things can unexpectedly become great and immeasurable.“

—  Rainer Maria Rilke, libro Letters to a Young Poet

Origine: Letters to a Young Poet

„As to love our neighbour as we love ourselves is the great law of Christianity, so it is the great precept of nature to love ourselves only as we love our neighbour, or what comes to the same thing, as our neighbour is capable of loving us.“

—  Adam Smith, libro The Theory of Moral Sentiments

Section I, Chap. V.
The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), Part I