Muhammad Ali is reported to have said, “When you’re as great as I am, it’s hard to be humble.” Whether or not he actually said it, I don’t know, but it sounds like him.  I recall seeing pictures of the famous fighter waving his boxing gloves in the air and saying, “I am the greatest!” How much was media “hype” designed to strike fear into the hearts of his opponents in the ring, and how much he actually believed it himself, is open to conjecture. 

But once we start saying it, it becomes hard not to believe it. In her biography of Winston Churchill, Kay Halle tells the story of a little boy who lived near Chartwell and was taken there by his nanny to see “the greatest man in the whole, wide world.” Churchill had retired for his afternoon nap.  While the little boy’s nanny had her tea, the …