Trifling Quotes

• Silence - Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Silence, Benefits, May

  Benjamin Franklin, William Temple Franklin (1818). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin ...”, p.68

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• A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Education, Ignorance, Perspective

  "Many Thoughts of Many Minds" edited by Henry Southgate, 1862.

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• Though so trifling, the success of our first Buffalo hunt gave us quite a social lift.

  Ernest Thompson Seton

  Hunting, Buffalo, Firsts

  Ernest Thompson Seton (2010). “The Arctic Prairies: A Canoe Journey”, p.48, BoD – Books on Demand

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• If a weakly mortal is to do anything in the world besides eat the bread thereof, there must be a determined subordination of the whole nature to the one aim no trifling with time, which is passing, with strength which is only too limited.

  Beatrice Webb

  Nature, Demise, World

  Beatrice Webb, Jeanne MacKenzie (1982). “The Diary of Beatrice Webb: Glitter Around and Darkness Within, 1873-1892”, Belknap Press

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• Children are overbearing, supercilious, passionate, envious, inquisitive, egotistical, idle, fickle, timid, intemperate, liars, and dissemblers; they laugh and weep easily, are excessive in their joys and sorrows, and that about the most trifling objects; they bear no pain, but like to inflict it on others; already they are men.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Children, Pain, Liars

  "The "Characters" of Jean de la Bruyère". Book by Jean de La Bruyère. Translated by Henri Van Laun, 1885.

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• It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme Rudely appealed to on each trifling theme.

  William Cowper

  Blood, Rude, Chill

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• Mere imagination would indeed be mere trifling; only no imagination is mere .

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Imagination, Mere

  Charles Sanders Peirce (1974). “Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce”, Harvard University Press

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• They that apply themselves to trifling matters commonly become incapable of great ones.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Matter, Incapable, Great Ones

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• At an expense trifling indeed, compared to what she frequently spends upon unprofitable contests, she might place the moral world on a new foundation, and to rise the pinnacle of moral glory.

  John Strachan

  Foundation, World, Might

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• In revolutions the occasions may be trifling but great interest are at stake.

  Aristotle

  May, Revolution, Rebellious

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• There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.

  Mark Twain

  Math, Science, Return

  Life on the Mississippi ch. 17 (1883)

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• Moralities, ethics, laws, customs, beliefs, doctrines - these are of trifling import. All that matters is that the miraculous become the norm.

  Henry Miller

  Law, Miracle, Doctrine

  "Black Spring". Book by Henry Miller, 1936.

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• Frequently the more trifling the subject, the more animated and protracted the discussion.

  Franklin Pierce

  Patriotic, Presidential, Political

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• Events of great consequence often spring from trifling circumstances.

  Livy

  Time, Spring, Events

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, "Annales", XXVII. 9, (pp. 815-816), 1922.

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• I have not wasted my life trifling with literary fools in taverns, as Johnson did, when he should have been shaking England with the thunder of his spirit

  George Bernard Shaw

  Should Have, Taverns, Fool

  Misalliance preface (1914)

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• To say that a man is your Friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy. Most contemplate only what would be the accidental and trifling advantages of Friendship, as that the Friend can assist in time of need by his substance, or his influence, or his counsel. Even the utmost goodwill and harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for Friendship, for Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Friends, Kindness, Mean

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.110, Penguin

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• The most trifling actions that affect a man's credit are to be regarded. The sound of your hammer at five in the morning, or at nine at night, heard by a creditor, makes him easy six months longer; but if he sees you at the billiard-table, or hears your voice at a tavern, when you should be at work, he sends for his money the next day.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Money, Morning, Men

  Benjamin Franklin, Henry Stueber (1823). “The Life of the Late Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Written by Himself: Together with a Number of His Humorous, Moral, and Literary Essays, Chiefly in the Manner of The Spectator”, p.177

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• There is something in the decay of nature that awakens thought, even in the most trifling mind.

  Sarah Josepha Hale

  Loss, Mind, Decay

  Sarah Josepha Buell Hale (1828). “Ladies' Magazine”, p.537

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• Solon used to say that speech was the image of actions; . . . that laws were like cobwebs, - for that if any trifling or powerless thing fell into them, they held it fast; while if it were something weightier, it broke through them and was off.

  Diogenes

  Law, Speech, Cobwebs

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• Surely a long life must be somewhat tedious, since we are forced to call in so many trifling things to help rid us of our time, which will never return.

  Samuel Johnson

  Long, Boredom, Return

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• Certain trifling flaws sit as disgracefully on a character of elegance as a ragged button on a court dress.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Character, Buttons, Dresses

  "Aphorisms on man. Translated from the original manuscript of the Rev. John Caspar Lavater, citizen of Zuric. ; [One line from Juvenal]" by Johann Kaspar Lavater, 1790.

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• To say that a man is your Friend means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Friendship, Mean, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.110, Penguin

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• To the natural philosopher, there is no natural object unimportant or trifling. From the least of Nature's works he may learn the greatest lessons.

  John Herschel

  Nature, Lessons, May

  Sir John Frederick William Herschel, William Whewell, George Henry Lewes, Hermann von Helmholz, James Clerk Maxwell (1996). “The Origins of Modern Philosophy of Science, 1830-1914: Preliminary discourse on the study of natural philosophy”

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• The trifling economy of paper, as a cheaper medium, or its convenience for transmission, weighs nothing in opposition to the advantages of the precious metals it is liable to be abused, has been, is, and forever will be abused, in every country in which it is permitted.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Forever, Paper

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1808-1816”, p.331, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Nothing has a greater tendency to lessen the reverence which mankind ought to have for the Supreme Being, than a careless repetition of his name upon every trifling occasion . . . . To prevent this profanation, such passages are selected from scripture, as contain some important precepts of morality and religion, in which that sacred name is seldom mentioned. Let sacred things be appropriated to sacred purposes.

  Noah Webster

  Names, Religion, Important

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