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TRIFLES quotes
Trifles make perfection, but perfection itself is no trifle.
He who esteems trifles for themselves is a trifler; he who esteems them for the conclusions to be drawn from them, or the advantage to which they can be put, is a philosopher.
Great merit, or great failings, will make you respected or despised; but trifles, little attentions, mere nothings, either done or neglected, will make you either liked or disliked in the general run of the world.
Frivolous curiosity about trifles, and laborious attentions to little objects which neither require nor deserve a moment's thought, lower a man, who from thence is thought, and not unjustly, incapable of greater matters.
There is nothing insignificant—nothing.
It is in those acts which we call trivialities that the seeds of joy are forever wasted.
There is a kind of latent omniscience not only in every man, but in every particle.
The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.
There is no real elevation of mind in a contempt of little things. It is, on the contrary, from too narrow views that we consider those things of little importance, which have, in fact, such extensive consequences.
Those who place their affections at first on trifles for amusement, will find these become at last their most serious concerns.
Whoever shall review his life will find that the whole tenor of his conduct has been determined by some accident of no apparent moment.
A stray hair, by its continued irritation, may give more annoyance than a smart blow.
As it would be great folly to shoe horses, as Nero did, with gold, so it is to spend time in trifles.
A life devoted to trifles, not only takes away the inclination, but the capacity for higher pursuits. The truths of Christianity have scarcely more influence on a frivolous than on a profligate character.
Trifles make the sum of human things, and half our misery from our foibles springs.
Men are led by trifles.
If the nose of Cleopatra had been a little shorter it would have changed the history of the world.
The mind of the greatest man on earth is not so independent of circumstances as not to feel inconvenienced by the merest buzzing noise about him; it does not need the report of a cannon to disturb his thoughts. The creaking of a vane or a pully is quite enough. Do not wonder that he reasons ill just now; a fly is buzzing by his ear; it is quite enough to unfit him for giving good counsel.
Nothing is more unworthy of a wise man, or ought to trouble him more, than to have allowed more time for trifling, and useless things, than they deserved.
There are no trifles in the moral universe of God. Speak but one true word today, and it shall go ringing on through the ages.
Think nothing too little; seek for the cross in the daily incidents of life, look for the cross in everything. Nothing is too little which relates to man's salvation, nor is there anything too little in which either to please God or to serve Satan.
A grain of sand leads to the fall of a mountain when the moment has come for the mountain to fall.
Trifles we should let not plague us only, but also gratify us; we should seize not their poison-bags only, but their honey-bags also.
Those who give too much attention to trifling things become generally incapable of great ones.
There is a care for trifles which proceeds from love of conscience, and is most holy; and a care for trifles which comes of idleness and frivolity, and is most base.
A little and a little, collected together, become a great deal; the heap in the barn consists of single grains, and drop and drop make the inundation.
Trifles discover a character more than actions of importance. In regard to the former, a person is off his guard, and thinks it not material to use disguise. It is no imperfect hint toward the discovery of a man's character to say he looks as though you might be certain of finding a pin upon his sleeve.
Johnson well says, "He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything." Life is made up of little things. It is very rarely that an occasion is offered for doing a great deal at once. True greatness consists in being great in little things.
The chains which cramp us most are those which weigh on us least.
Small causes are sufficient to make a man uneasy when great ones are not in the way. For want of a block he will stumble at a straw.
The great moments of life are but moments like the others. Your doom is spoken in a word or two. A single look from the eyes, a mere pressure of the hand, may decide it; or of the lips, though they cannot speak.
Delude not yourself with the notion that you may be untrue and uncertain in trifles and in important things the contrary. Trifles make up existence, and give the measure by which to try us; and the fearful power of habit, after a time, suffers not the best will to ripen into action.
He that has "a spirit of detail" will do better in life than many who figured beyond him in the university.—Such an one is minute and particular.—He adjusts trifles; and these trifles compose most of the business and happiness of life.—Great events happen seldom, and affect few; trifles happen every moment to everybody; and though one occurrence of them adds little to the happiness or misery of life, yet the sum total of their continual repetition is of the highest consequence.
The power of duly appreciating little things belongs to a great mind; a narrow-minded man has it not, for to him they are great things.
Think naught a trifle, though it small appear; sands make the mountain, moments make the year, and trifles, life. Your care to trifles give, else you may die ere you have learned to live.
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