Inches make champions.
—Vince Lombardi (1913–70) American Football Coach
For most of life, nothing wonderful happens. If you don’t enjoy getting up and working and finishing your work and sitting down to a meal with family or friends, then the chances are you’re not going to be very happy. If someone bases his happiness or unhappiness on major events like a great new job, huge amounts of money, a flawlessly happy marriage or a trip to Paris, that person isn’t going to be happy much of the time. If, on the other hand, happiness depends on a good breakfast, flowers in the yard, a drink or a nap, then we are more likely to live with quite a bit of happiness.
—Andy Rooney (b.1919) American Writer, Humorist, TV Personality
Events of great consequence often spring from trifling circumstances.
—Livy (Titus Livius) (59 BCE–17 CE) Roman Historian
The law of the harvest is to reap more than you sow. Sow an act, and you reap a habit; sow a habit, and you reap a character; sow a character, and you reap a destiny.
—George Boardman the Younger (1828–1903) American Clergyman, Author
I learned…that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness.
—Brenda Ueland (1891–1985) American Journalist Memoirist
When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.
—Jacob Riis (1849–1914) Danish-American Reformer, Journalist, Photographer
He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
It was only a sunny smile, but it scattered the night. And little it cost in the giving; like morning light, and made the day worth living.
—Unknown
Be plain in dress, and sober in your diet; In short, my dear, kiss me and be quiet.
—Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) English Aristocrat, Poet, Novelist, Writer
When (Ty) Cobb got on first base he had an apparently nervous habit of kicking the bag.. . By kicking the bag hard enough Cobb could move it a full two inches closer to second base. He figured that this improved his chances for a steal or for reaching second base safely on a hit.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
Many strokes, though with a little axe, hew down and fell the hardest-timber’d oak.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.
—Robert Brault
True worth is doing each day some little good and not dreaming of great things to do by and by.
—Unknown
It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.
—Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish Writer
Not to go back is somewhat to advance. And men must walk, at least, before they dance.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
God requires a faithful fulfillment of the merest trifle given us to do, rather than the most ardent aspiration to things to which we are not called.
—Francis de Sales (1567–1622) French Catholic Saint
Put your heart, mind, intellect, and soul even to your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.
—Sivananda Saraswati (1887–1963) Indian Hindu Spiritual Teacher
A terrace nine stories high begins with a pile of earth.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
The chief duty I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
Great issues develop from small beginnings.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
If we take care of the inches we will not have to worry about the miles.
—Hartley Coleridge (1796–1849) English Writer, Poet
Nothing can be done except little by little.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
Practice yourself, for heaven’s sake in little things, and then proceed to greater.
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Little by little does the trick.
—Aesop (620–564 BCE) Greek Fabulist
Most people would succeed in small things, if they were not troubled with great ambitions.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
The prizes go to those who meet emergencies successfully. And the way to meet emergencies is to do each daily task the best we can; to act as though the eye of opportunity were always upon us. In the hundred-yard race the winter doesn’t cross the tape line a dozen strides ahead of the field. He wins by inches. So we find it in ordinary business life. The big things that come our way are seldom the result of long thought or careful planning, but rather they are the fruit of seed planted in the daily routine of our work.
—William Feather (1889–1981) American Publisher, Author
It is easier to forgive an enemy than a friend.
—Dorothee Luzy Dotinville (1747–1830) French Dancer, Actress
Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern; it will come out a rose by and by. Life is like that; one stitch at a time taken patiently, and the pattern will come out all right like the embroidery.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Many strokes overthrow the tallest oaks.
—John Lyly (1554–1606) English Dramatist, Novelist, Writer
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