Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Great
Great as a lord.
—Frances Fawkes
It is with great men as with high mountains. They oppress us with awe when we stand under them: they disappoint our insatiable imaginations when we are nigh, but not quite close to them: and then, the further we recede from them, the more astonishing they appear; until … they at one moment seem miraculously lifted above earth, and the next strike our fancies as let down from heaven.
—Julius Charles Hare
I think myself as great
As Cæsar riding in the Roman street,
With captive kings at his triumphant car.
—Christopher Marlowe