Trifles Quotes - Page 2

• Revolutions are not about trifles, but spring from trifles.

  Aristotle

  Spring, Revolution, Rebellion

  Socrates, Plato, Aristotle (1967). “Wit and Wisdom of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle: Being a Treasury of Thousands of Glorious, Inspiring and Imperishable Thoughts, Views and Observations of the Three Great Greek Philosophers, Classified Under about Four Hundred Subjects for Comparative Study”

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• The journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.

  Alton Brown

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  39 Copy quote

• A stray hair, by its continued irritation, may give more annoyance than a smart blow.

  James Russell Lowell

  Smart, Blow, Irritation

  James Russell Lowell (1845). “Conversations on Some of the Old Poets”, p.115

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Strong, Children, Knights

  "Tremendous Trifles". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1909.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The charity that is a trifle to us can be precious to others.

  Homer

  Inspirational, Teaching, Teens

  Homer (1983). “The Odyssey”, Outlet

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Baby, Children, Dragons

  "Tremendous Trifles". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1909.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  Blaise Pascal

  Independent, Men, Giving

  Blaise Pascal (1828). “Thoughts on religion, and other subjects”, p.109

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• To be angry about trifles is mean and childish; to rage and be furious is brutish; and to maintain perpetual wrath is akin to the practice and temper of devils; but to prevent and suppress rising resentment is wise and glorious, is manly and divine.

  Isaac Watts

  Forgiveness, Wise, Mean

  Isaac Watts (1813). “The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logic”, p.331

  32 Copy quote

  Show source

• Virtue knows that it is impossible to get on without compromise, and tunes herself, as it were, a trifle sharp to allow for an inevitable fall in playing.

  Samuel Butler

  Fall, Tunes, Impossible

  Samuel Butler (2008). “The Note-books of Samuel Butler: Easyread Large Edition”, p.30, ReadHowYouWant.com

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• He that resigns his peace to little casualties, and suffers the course of his life to be interrupted for fortuitous inadvertencies or offences, delivers up himself to the direction of the wind, and loses all that constancy and equanimity which constitutes the chief praise of a wise man.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wise, Men, Wind

  Samuel Johnson (1793). “The Rambler”, p.254

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Trifles lighter than straws are levers in the building up of character.

  Martin Farquhar Tupper

  Character, Building Up, Levers

  Martin Farquhar Tupper (1848). “Gems from Tupper: Consisting of Extracts from the Following Works: Proverbial Philosophy; Thousand Lines; Twins; Hactenus; An Authr's Mind; Geraldine, and Other Poems; Heart; Crock of Gold; and Probabilities, an Aid to Faith”, p.189

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Men are led by trifles.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Men

  8 Copy quote

• There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Art, Men

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1799). “Life of Johnson: Including Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides and Johnson's Diary of a Journey Into North Wales”, p.502

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have seldom known a person who deserted the truth in trifles and then could be trusted in matters of importance.

  Babe Paley

  Truth, Trust Issues, Matter

  28 Copy quote

• You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that.

  E. B. White

  Life, Heaven, Trying

  51 Copy quote

• Cracks make caves collapse.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Caves, Cracks, Collapse

  6 Copy quote
• 

  Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.

  Francis Chan

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Success

  Francis Chan (2013). “Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God”, p.92, David C Cook

  221 Copy quote

  Show source

• And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray's In deepest consequence

  William Shakespeare

  Truth, Winning, Darkness

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 1, sc. 3, l. 123

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Society, dead or alive, can have no charm without intimacy and no intimacy without an interest in trifles.

  Arthur Balfour

  Society, Alive, Intimacy

  18 Copy quote

• Men are lead by trifles.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Leadership, Men, Society

  4 Copy quote

• We must not stand upon trifles.

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1858). “Adventures of Don Quixote de la Mancha”, p.155

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• How full of trifles everything is! It is only one's thoughts that fill a room with something more than furniture.

  Wallace Stevens

  Rooms, Furniture, Pettiness

  "Souvenirs and Prophecies: the Young Wallace Stevens" edited by Holly Stevens, (Ch. 9), 1977.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Trifles light as air are to the jealous confirmations strong as proofs of holy writ.

  William Shakespeare

  Jealousy, Strong, Light

  'Othello' (1602-4) act 3, sc. 3, l. 323

  10 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Positive, Hope

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Carlyle (1841). “Essays”, p.4

  114 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is in the treatment of trifles that a person shows what they are.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Philosophical, Treatment, Shows

  21 Copy quote