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 (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
There is nothing insignificant—nothing.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
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.
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63) English Novelist
Trifles make perfection, but perfection itself is no trifle.
—Michelangelo (1475–1564) Italian Painter, Sculptor, Architect, Poet, Engineer
A grain of sand leads to the fall of a mountain when the moment has come for the mountain to fall.
—Ernest Renan (1823–92) French Philosopher, Historian
A little and a little, collected together, becomes a great deal; the heap in the barn consists of single grains, and drop and drop make the inundation.
—Sa’Di (Musharrif Od-Din Muslih Od-Din) (c.1213–91) Persian Poet
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.
—Daniel Webster (1782–1852) American Statesman, Lawyer
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.
—Richard Whately (1787–1863) English Philosopher, Theologian
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.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
There is a kind of latent omniscience not only in every man, but in every particle.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Whoever shall review his life will find that the whole tenor of his conduct has been determined by some accident of no apparent moment.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Those who place their affections at first on trifles for amusement, will find these become at last their most serious concerns.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
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.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Philosopher
If the nose of Cleopatra had been a little shorter, it would have changed the history of the world.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
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.
—Hannah More
Those who give too much attention to trifling things become generally incapable of great ones.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
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.
—Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800–82) British Anglican Theologian, Scholar
The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
A stray hair, by its continued irritation, may give more annoyance than a smart blow.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
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.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
The chains which cramp us most are those which weigh on us least.
—Sophie Swetchine (1782–1857) Russian Mystic, Writer
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.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
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.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
Since trifles make the sum of human things, and half our misery from our foibles springs; since life’s best joys consist in peace and ease, and few can save or serve, but all may please: let the ungentle spirit learn from thence, a small unkindness is a great offense.
—Hannah More
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.
—Edward Young (1683–1765) English Poet
It is in these acts called trivialities that the seeds of joy are forever wasted, until men and women look round with haggard faces at the devastation their own waste has made, and say, the earth bears no harvest of sweetness—calling their denial knowledge.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Men are led by trifles.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
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.
—William Shenstone (1714–63) British Poet, Landscape Gardener
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.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
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