Smallness Quotes

• For so long as the Jew has even one ally, he will be convinced - in his smallness of mind - that his salvation came from that ally. It is only when he is alone - against all of his own efforts and frantic attempts - that he will, through no choice, be compelled to turn to G-d.

  Meir Kahane

  Long, Choices, Effort

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• The chief proof of man's real greatness lies in his perception of his own smallness.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Real, Lying, Greatness

  Arthur Conan Doyle (2010). “The Sign of Four”, p.99, Broadview Press

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• The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that will show you what the real smallness of your greatness is.

  Phillips Brooks

  Real, Humility, Humble

  Phillips Brooks (2007). “The Purpose and Use of Comfort”, p.340, Cosimo, Inc.

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• But let us remember that we are dealing with infinities and indivisibles both of which transcend our finite understanding, the former on account of their magnitude, the latter because of their smallness.

  Galileo Galilei

  Understanding, Infinity, Imagine

  "On the loadstone and magnetic bodies".

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• No one can grow if he does not accept his smallness.

  Pope Francis

  Doe, Accepting, Grows

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• We become more worthy the more we bend our minds to the impersonal. We become better as we take in the universe, thinking more about the largeness that it is and laugh about the smallness that is us.

  Rebecca Goldstein

  Thinking, Laughing, Mind

  Rebecca Newberger Goldstein (2014). “Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away”, p.16, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• The feelings of my smallness and my nothingness always kept me good company.

  Pope John XXIII

  Feelings, Good Company, Nothingness

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• There came to him an image of man’s whole life upon the earth. It seemed to him that all man’s life was like a tiny spurt of flame that blazed out briefly in an illimitable and terrifying darkness, and that all man’s grandeur, tragic dignity, his heroic glory, came from the brevity and smallness of this flame. He knew his life was little and would be extinguished, and that only darkness was immense and everlasting. And he knew that he would die with defiance on his lips, and that the shout of his denial would ring with the last pulsing of his heart into the maw of all-engulfing night.

  Thomas Wolfe

  Heart, Night, Men

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  If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.

  Dalai Lama

  Inspirational, Funny, Change

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• All things were together, infinite both in number and in smallness; for the small too was infinite.

  Anaxagoras

  Numbers, Together, Infinite

  "Early Greek Philosophy" by John Burnet, (Ch. 6), 1920.

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• Smallness in a great man seems smaller by its disproportion with all the rest.

  Victor Hugo

  Men, Great Men, Seems

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• Let us not cease to do the utmost, that we may incessantly go forward in the way of the Lord; and let us not despair of the smallness of our accomplishments.

  John Calvin

  Motivational, Accomplishment, Despair

  John Calvin, Henry Van Andel (2004). “Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life”, p.23, Baker Books

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• Your problems aren't too big -- perhaps your worship is too small.

  Tommy Tenney

  Adversity, Positive Attitude, Worship

  Tommy Tenney (2001). “Experiencing His Presence: Devotions for God Catchers”, p.71, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• It could be that our faithlessness is a cowering cowardice born of our very smallness, a massive failure of imagination... If we were to judge nature by common sense or likelihood, we wouldnt believe the world existed.

  Annie Dillard

  Believe, Imagination, Judging

  Annie Dillard (2011). “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek”, p.146, Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd

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• What doesn't kill you makes you smaller

  Mario

  Funny, Humorous, Character

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• If we were to judge nature by common sense or likelihood, we wouldn't believe the world existed.

  Annie Dillard

  Atheist, Believe, Common Sense

  Annie Dillard (2011). “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek”, p.146, Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd

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• It is not the greatness of a man's means that makes him independent, so much as the smallness of his wants.

  William Cobbett

  Mean, Independent, Greatness

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• It’s a gift to joyfully recognize and accept our own smallness and ordinariness. Then you are free with nothing to live up to, nothing to prove, and nothing to protect. Such freedom is my best description of Christian maturity, because once you know that your “I” is great and one with God, you can ironically be quite content with a small and ordinary “I.” No grandstanding is necessary. Any question of your own importance or dignity has already been resolved once and for all and forever.

  Richard Rohr

  Christian, Maturity, Forever

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• Increase and widen your desires till nothing but reality can fulfill them. It is not desire that is wrong, but its narrowness and smallness. Desire is devotion. By all means be devoted to the real, the infinite, the eternal heart of being. Transform desire into love. All you want is to be happy. All your desires, whatever they may be are expressions of your longing for happiness.

  Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

  Buddhist, Real, Heart

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• It is from a weakness and smallness of mind that men are opinionated; and we are very loath to believe what we are not able to comprehend.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Believe, Men, Mind

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• If we consider what science already has enabled men to know-the immensity of space, the fantastic philosophy of the stars, the infinite smallness of the composition of atoms, the macrocosm whereby we succeed only in creating outlines and translating a measure into numbers without our minds being able to form any concrete idea of it-we remain astounded by the enormous machinery of the universe.

  Guglielmo Marconi

  Success, Stars, Philosophy

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• I am not a 'democrat' only because 'humility' and equality are spiritual principles corrupted by the attempt to mechanize and formalize them, with the result that we get not universal smallness and humility, but universal greatness and pride, till some Orc gets hold of a ring of power--and then we get and are getting slavery.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Spiritual, Humility, Pride

  J.R.R. Tolkien (2014). “The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien”, p.246, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The purpose of life is to be beautiful, to be bountiful, to be blissful, to be graceful and grateful. What a wonderful English word-grateful. If one is great and full, one is God. And whenever smallness faces you, you should be great, and full-full of that greatness.

  Harbhajan Singh Yogi

  Beautiful, Gratitude, Grateful

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• God is not in the vastness of greatness. He is hid in the vastness of smallness . He is not in the general. He is in the particular.

  Pearl S. Buck

  Greatness, Vastness, Particular

  Pearl S. Buck (2013). “God's Men: A Novel”, p.442, Open Road Media

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• Rule number one is, don't sweat the small stuff. Rule number two is, it's all small stuff.

  Mike Davies

  Life, Positive, Attitude

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