Never get a reputation for a small perfection, if you are trying for fame in a loftier area; the world can only judge by generals, and it sees that those who pay considerable attention to minutiæ, seldom have their minds occupied with great things. There are, it is true, exceptions; but to exceptions the world does not attend.
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873) English novelist and politician
The Disowned, ch. 2 [Talbot] (1828)
(Source)
See La Rochefoucauld.
Quotations about:
little things
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People who are too much concerned with little things usually become incapable of big ones.
[Ceux qui s’appliquent trop aux petites choses deviennent ordinairement incapables des grandes.]François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶41 (1665-1678) [tr. Kronenberger (1959)]
(Source)
Present from the 1665 edition. See here for more discussion (English).
(Source (French)). Other translations:They that use to employ their minds too much upon Trifles, commonly make themselves incapable of any thing that is serious or great.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶42]Those who apply themselves too much to little things, commonly become incapable of great ones.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶38; ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶41]]Those who apply themselves much to little things, commonly become incapable of great ones.
[ed. Carville (1835), ¶35]Those who bestow too much application on trifling things, become generally incapable of great ones.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶42]Those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871)]Undue attention to details tends to unfit us for greater enterprises.
[tr. Heard (1917)]Too close attention to trifles generally breeds incapacity in matters of moment.
[tr. Stevens (1939)]Men too involved in details usually become unable to deal with great matters.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957)]People too much taken up with little things usually become incapable of big ones.
[tr. Tancock (1959)]Those who apply themselves too much to little things, ordinarily become incapable of great ones.
[tr. Whichello (2016)]
If we giv up our minds tew little things we never shall be fit for big ones. I knew a man once who could ketch more flies with one swoop ov his hand than enny boddy else could, and he want good at ennything else.
[If we give up our minds to little things we never shall be fit for big ones. I knew a man once who could catch more flies with one swoop of his hand than anybody else could, and he wasn’t good at anything else.]
Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 132 “Affurisms: Chips” (1874)
(Source)
If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how little remains that we cannot do.
Samuel Butler (1835–1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1841), “Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series, No. 2
(Source)
This thought continues here.
This essay was inspired by his reading of Walter Savage Landor in 1833, with passages pulled from his lecture "Individualism," last in his course on "The Philosophy of History" (1836–1837), with other passages from the lectures "School," "Genius," and "Duty" in his course on "Human Life" (1838–1839).
