Greatness has no reality in nature (Cowley)
September 27th, 2007 | Published in Philosophy, Truth, Quotes
Greatness has no reality in nature, but is a creature of the fancy, a notion that consists only in relation and comparison…. There is, in truth, no rising or meridian of the sun, but only in respect to several places: there is no right or left, no upper hand, in nature; everything is little, and everything is great, according as it is diversely compared.
–Abraham Cowley (1618–1667), “On Greatness” in The Art of the Personal Essay by Phillip Lopate (1994), p. 121