“When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set.”

—  Lin Yutang

As quoted in Hard-to-Solve Cryptograms (2001) by Derrick Niederman, p. 96

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update May 23, 2024. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set." by Lin Yutang?
Lin Yutang photo
Lin Yutang67
Chinese writer 1895–1976

Related quotes

Margaret Wise Brown photo

“When the groundhog casts his shadow
And the small birds sing
And the pussywillows happen
And the sun shines warm
And when the peepers peep
Then it is Spring”

Margaret Wise Brown (1910–1952) American children's writer and editor

William Wordsworth photo

“Small service is true service while it lasts.
Of humblest friends, bright creature! scorn not one:
The daisy, by the shadow that it casts,
Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun.”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

To a Child. Written in her Album (1834).

John Dewey photo

“As long as politics is the shadow cast on society by big business, the attenuation of the shadow will not change the substance.”

John Dewey (1859–1952) American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer

Quoted in John Dewey and American Democracy by Robert Westbrook (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991), p. 440; cited in Understanding Power http://www.understandingpower.com/Chapter9.htm#f16| (2002) by Noam Chomsky, ch. 9, footnote 16; originally from &quot;The Need for a New Party&quot; (1931) by John Dewey, Later Works 6, http://books.google.com/books?id=0xPFJ2uwpbIC&amp;lpg=PA163&amp;ots=dd3ciwpXoJ&amp;dq=%22shadow%20cast%22%20dewey&amp;pg=PA163#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false| p. 163. (Via Westbrook.) <br class="br">Misc. Quotes

Chinua Achebe photo

“When there is a big tree small ones climb on its back to reach the sun.”

Chinua Achebe book No Longer at Ease

Source: No Longer at Ease (1960), Chapter 10 (p. 95)

Rumi photo

“Reason is like an officer when the King appears;
The officer then loses his power and hides himself.
Reason is the shadow cast by God; God is the sun.”

Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet

As translated in Masnavi I Ma'navi : The Spiritual Couplets of Maulána Jalálu-'d-Dín Muhammad Rúmí (1898) edited by Edward Henry Whinfield Book IV, Story IV : "Bayazid and his impious sayings when beside himself" <!-- also quoted in The Perennial Philosophy (1945) by Aldous Huxley -->

Alice Sebold photo

“The shadow of years was not as big on his small body. He knew I was away. But when people left they always came back.”

Alice Sebold book The Lovely Bones

Source: The Lovely Bones

“[I]t is not only men who may be harmed by preferences and quotas. In a number of ways, women could be harmed as well. To begin with, such policies could cast a shadow of doubt over women’s genuine accomplishments.”

Steve Stewart-Williams (1971)

Source: Men, Women and STEM: Why the Differences and What Should be Done? (with Lewis G. Halsey; 2021), p. 22

Jonathan Safran Foer photo

“In the morning, when the nothing vase casts a something shadow, like the memory of someone you've lost, what can you say about that?”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Jonathan Swift photo

“Men nowadays Worship the Rising Sun, and not the Setting.”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet

A Tritical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind (1707)
Context: ALL Rivers go to the Sea, but none return from it. Xerxes wept when he beheld his Army, to consider that in less than a Hundred Years they would be all Dead. Anacreon was' Choakt with a Grape-stone, and violent Joy Kills as well as violent Grief. There is nothing in this World constant but Inconstancy; yet Plato thought that if Virtue would appear to the World in her own native Dress, all Men would be Enamoured with her. But now since Interest governs the World, and Men neglect the Golden Mean, Jupiter himself, if he came on the Earth would be Despised, unless it were as he did to Danae in a Golden Shower. For Men nowadays Worship the Rising Sun, and not the Setting.

Related topics