“I am a little man and this is a little town, but there must be a spark in little men that can burst into flame.”

Source: The Moon Is Down

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I am a little man and this is a little town, but there must be a spark in little men that can burst into flame." by John Steinbeck?
John Steinbeck photo
John Steinbeck 366
American writer 1902–1968

Related quotes

Dante Alighieri photo

“A great flame follows a little spark.”

Canto I, line 34 (tr. Sinclair).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Paradiso

Boris Yeltsin photo

“A man must live like a great brilliant flame and burn as brightly as he can. In the end he burns out. But this is far better than a mean little flame.”

Boris Yeltsin (1931–2007) 1st President of Russia and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR

Statement to a TImes reporter in 1990, as quoted in "The wit and wisdom of Boris" in Guardian Unlimited (23 April 2007)
1990s

“The little red lark, like a rosy spark
Of song, to his sun-burst flies;
But till you are risen, earth is a prison,
Full of my captive sighs.”

Alfred Perceval Graves (1846–1931) Anglo-Irish poet, songwriter, and school inspector

Song, "The Little Red Lark".

David Benioff photo
Rudy Rucker photo

“Not only am I scared of big, strong men, I'm scared of mean little women. It's just little skinny men and nice big women that I get along with.”

Rudy Rucker (1946) American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author and philosopher

Source: The Sex Sphere (1983), p. 40

Poul Anderson photo

“Be calm. A man can do but little. Enough if that little be right.”

Source: There Will Be Time (1972), Chapter 11 (p. 126)

Mark Twain photo

“This poor little one-horse town.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

"The Undertaker's Chat", first published as "A Reminiscence of the Back Settlements" in The Galaxy, Vol. 10, No. 5, November 1870 http://books.google.com/books?id=2TIZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA731. Anthologized in Mark Twain's Sketches, New and Old‎ http://books.google.com/books?id=5LcIAAAAQAAJ (1875)

Thomas Carlyle photo

“No sadder proof can be given by a man of his own littleness than disbelief in great men.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Divinity

Robin Williams photo

“You're only given a little spark of madness and if you lose that, you're nothing.”

Robin Williams (1951–2014) American actor and stand-up comedian

A Night at the Roxy (1978)

Upton Sinclair photo

“I intend to do what little one man can do to awaken the public conscience, and in the meantime I am not frightened by your menaces.”

Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) American novelist, writer, journalist, political activist

Letter to the Louis D. Oaks, Los Angeles Chief of Police (17 May 1923)
Context: I intend to do what little one man can do to awaken the public conscience, and in the meantime I am not frightened by your menaces. I am not a giant physically; I shrink from pain and filth and vermin and foul air, like any other man of refinement; also, I freely admit, when I see a line of a hundred policeman with drawn revolvers flung across a street to keep anyone from coming onto private property to hear my feeble voice, I am somewhat disturbed in my nerves. But I have a conscience and a religious faith, and I know that our liberties were not won without suffering, and may be lost again through our cowardice. I intend to do my duty to my country.

Related topics