Michael H. Hart notes in his The 100: Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History in 1978: “My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular level.”

If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad?
Lamartine

Alphonse de Lamartine has not been the only person to appreciate the Prophet Muhammad in the west, peace and blessings be upon him. Some may argue today, in a time filled with crises, that “they are exercising their freedom of speech, while others are using this freedom for sarcastic purposes.” What is clear, however, is that the following quotes of praise have been based upon research, careful analysis, comparative work, and sound conclusions; whereas the so-called sarcasm we have today—manifested after the publication of offensive cartoons—rises on the weak foundations of prejudice, ignorance, and a distorted representation of Islam by some extremists the like of whom unfortunately are to be found in every community.[1] The offenders who had drawn the cartoon would probably not have drawn the Blessed Prophet with a bomb in his turban if they had heard of Mahatma Gandhi speaking about him in Young India:

I wanted to know the best of one who holds today undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind . . . I became more than convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet, the scrupulous regard for his pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle.
When I closed the 2nd volume (of the Prophet's biography), I was sorry there was not more for me to read of the great life.

The epigram above is concluded by Lamartine as follows, declaring his greatness:

The most famous men created arms, laws and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples, and dynasties, but millions of men in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and souls...his forbearance in victory, his ambition, which was entirely devoted to one idea and in no manner striving for an empire; his endless prayers, his mystic conversations with God, his death and his triumph after death; all these attest not to an imposture but to a firm conviction which gave him the power to restore a dogma. This dogma was two-fold, the unity of God and the immateriality of God; the former telling what God is, the latter telling what God is not; the one overthrowing false gods with the sword, the other starting an idea with the words. Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational dogmas, of a cult without images, the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire; that is MUHAMMAD. As regards all the standards by which Human Greatness may be measured, we may well ask, IS THERE ANY MAN GREATER THAN HE? (Historie de la Turquie, Paris, 1854, Vol. II, pp. 276-277).

Dr. Jules Masserman, an American psychoanalyst, carried out a study entitled “Who Were Histories Great Leaders?” for Time magazine in 1974 to find out the most influential spiritual guide in human history. He used three criteria to analyze the guides he listed in his research: Did he provide his community with well-being? Was he able to build up a social organization for his followers to feel safe in? and did he manage to draw up a comprehensive scheme of faith. Masserman comes to the surprising conclusion that “perhaps the greatest leader of all times was Muhammad, who combined all the three functions. To a lesser degree Moses did the same.”

Michael H. Hart notes in his The 100: Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History in 1978: “My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular level.”

Thomas Carlyle, a Scottish historian and essayist, said, “How one man single-handedly, could weld warring tribes and wandering Bedouins into a most powerful and civilized nation in less than two decades.” He wrote in his book The Hero as a Prophet that Muhammad was a “silent and magnificent soul.”

In their History of the Saracen Empires (London, 1870) Edward Gibbon and Simon Ockley speak on the profession of Islam:

"I believe in one God, and Mahomet, an apostle of God” is the simple and invariable profession of Islam. The intellectual image of the Deity has never been degraded by any visible idol; the honor of the Prophet have never transgresses the measure of human virtues; and his living precepts have restrained the gratitude of his disciples within the bounds of reason and religion.

Sir George Bernard Shaw said: “I have studied this wonderful man and I think that he was far from being an antichrist. I feel compelled to call him the savior of mankind . . . If a man like Muhammad were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems that would bring it the much needed peace and happiness.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe extolled the Prophet Muhammad when the poet was only 23 years old. The fascination of Islam and its founder took hold of Goethe and occupied him to the extent that he could not shake it off for the remainder of his life. The 70 year old Goethe still confessed quite openly that he was thinking to “reverentially celebrate that holy night the Qur’an was sent down to the Prophet from above.” With his West-Eastern Divan he set up a literary monument to Islam. One of his self written announcements for this book even comprises the astonishing sentence that the author of the book wouldn’t argue if he “were suspected of being a Muslim himself” (quoted from Die Welt, February 11, 2006).

The following praise and final analysis by W. Montgomery Watt in his Mohammad at Mecca (Oxford, 1953) explains why we have such offenses as we have today:

His readiness to undergo persecutions for his beliefs, the high moral character of the men who believed in him and looked up to him as leader, and the greatness of his ultimate achievement—all argue his fundamental integrity. To suppose Muhammad an impostor raises more problems than it solves. Moreover, none of the great figures of history is so poorly appreciated in the West as Muhammad.

[1] On September 30, 2005, Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper published cartoons in which the Prophet was depicted in a caricature and was made fun of. Offended Muslims all over the world held marches and boycotts to protest this publication which later continued to be published by a few other European newspapers.