Believing in yourself and in your abilities is essential to make things happen for you and to be great in life. Being great is not about ego or selfishness. The path to greatness consists of having a strong and genuine desire, a good purpose, and also having good company along the way--people who will help you endure as you walk through life for greatness isn't a one-time effort, it's a lifelong habit.

Start bringing out the greatness in you and in others. Here are 27 powerful quotes to encourage you to take action--right now:

1. "Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them." --William Shakespeare

2. "Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." --Mark Twain

3. "You can only become great at that thing you’re willing to sacrifice for." --Maya Angelou

4. "The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment." --Elbert Hubbard

5. "The starting place for your greatness is desire. The desire to succeed, to serve others, to keep on going no matter what..." --Assegid Habtewold

6. "When you live positively it is impossible to not also be living for something greater than yourself." --Bryant McGill

7. "There will never be 'the right time' in your life to do a great thing. You must create that time and greatness will follow." --John A. Passaro

8. "Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

9. "Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness." --George Bernard Shaw

10. "Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us." --Wilma Rudolph

11. "There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth." --Leo Tolstoy

12. “Creativity means believing you have greatness.” --Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

13. "Those who have the ability to be grateful are the ones who have the ability to achieve greatness." --Steve Maraboli

14. "Whoever renders service to many puts himself in line for greatness--great wealth, great return, great satisfaction, great reputation, and great joy." --Jim Rohn

15. "Man’s greatness consists in his ability to do and the proper application of his powers to things needed to be done." --Frederick Douglass

16. "The test of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there." --James Buchanan

17. "Man’s greatness lies in his power of thought." --Blaise Pascal

18. "Nothing liberates our greatness like the desire to help, the desire to serve." --Marianne Williamson

19. "The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there." --John Buchan

20. "You treat people with greatness and greatness will come back to you." --Afrika Bambaataa

21. "Greatness, generally speaking, is an unusual quantity of a usual quality grafted upon a common man." --William Allen White

22. "Sound moral principle is the only sure evidence of strength, the only firm foundation of greatness and perpetuity. Where this is lacking, no man’s character is strong; no nation’s life can be lasting." --Orson F. Whitney

23. "A great person is one who affects the mind of their generation" --Benjamin Disraeli

24. "Kindness is the essence of greatness and the fundamental characteristic of the noblest men and women I have known." --Joseph B. Wirthlin

25. "The price of greatness is responsibility." --Winston Churchill

26. "Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service." --Martin Luther King Jr.