"Philip of Pokanoket : An Indian Memoir".
A more extensive statement not found as such in this work is attributed to Irving in Elbert Hubbard's Scrap Book (1923) edited by Roycroft Shop:
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819–1820)
Variant: Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.
“Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.”
Comme c’est le caractère des grands esprits de faire entendre en peu de paroles beaucoup de choses, les petits esprits au contraire ont le don de beaucoup parler, et de ne rien dire.
Maxim 142.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
“Danger (the spur of all great minds) is ever
The curb to your tame spirits.”
The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois (1613), Act V, scene i.
Source: The Golden Bough (1890), Chapter 4, Magic and Religion.
On Horace Walpole (1833)
“Little minds have little worries, big minds have no time for worries.”
As quoted in Egoists: A Book of Supermen (1909) by James Huneker, p. 367
