“743. God's mill grinds slow but sure.”

—  George Herbert

Jacula Prudentum (1651)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "743. God's mill grinds slow but sure." by George Herbert?
George Herbert photo
George Herbert216
Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest 1593–1633

Related quotes

“God's mills grind slow,
But they grind woe.”

William R. Alger (1822–1905) American clergyman and poet

"Delayed Retribution", p. 123.
Poetry of the Orient, 1865 edition

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo

“Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

Longfellow's translation of Friedrich von Logau, "Retribution", Sinngedichte III, 2, 24. http://www.kith.org/journals/jed/2002/05/21/452.html.

“Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all.”

Friedrich von Logau (1605–1655) German poet

Retribution. (Sinngedichte III, 2, 24, published c. 1654, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow). Compare: "God's mill grinds slow, but sure", George Herbert. Jacula Prudentum. Sextus Empiricus is the first writer who has presented the whole of the adage cited by Plutarch in his treatise "Concerning such whom God is slow to punish".

“A lawyer’s office is, I’m sure you’ll find,
Just like a mill, whereto for grinding come
A crowd of folk of every sort and kind.”

Pietro Nelli (1672–1740) Italian painter

L’esser d’ un’ avvocato, chi ben pensa,
E un molino, ove a macinar concorre
D’ogni sorte di genti copia immensa.
Satire, I., IX. — "Peccadigli degli Avvocati."
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 334.

George Herbert photo

“153. The mill cannot grind with water that's past.”

George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest

Jacula Prudentum (1651)

“Who first shall reach the mill, he first shall grind.”

Giovanni Maria Cecchi (1518–1587) Italian poet, playwright, writer and notary

Chi prima giugne al mulin, prima macina.
Gli Sciamiti, Act II., Scene III.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 270.

Sarah Doudney photo

“And a proverb haunts my mind
As a spell is cast,
"The mill cannot grind
With the water that is past."”

Sarah Doudney (1841–1926) English novelist and poet

Poem: Lesson of the Water-Mill.

Euripidés photo

“Slow but sure moves the might of the gods.”

Euripidés (-480–-406 BC) ancient Athenian playwright

Bacchæ l. 882
Variant translation: Slowly but surely withal moveth the might of the gods.

James Thomson (B.V.) photo

“The world rolls round for ever like a mill;
It grinds out death and life and good and ill;
It has no purpose, heart or mind or will.”

James Thomson (B.V.) (1834–1882) Scottish writer (1834-1882)

Part VIII
The City of Dreadful Night (1870–74)

Thomas Henry Huxley photo

“Mathematics may be compared to a mill of exquisite workmanship, which grinds you stuff of any degree of fineness; but, nevertheless, what you get out depends upon what you put in; and as the grandest mill in the world will not extract wheat-flour from peascod, so pages of formulae will not get a definite result out of loose data.”

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) English biologist and comparative anatomist

"Geological Reform", Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, Vol. 25 (1869); as reprinted in Huxley, Discourses, Biological and Geological essays (1909), pp. 335–336
1860s

Related topics