“A great flame follows a little spark.”
Dante Alighieri book Paradiso
Canto I, line 34 (tr. Sinclair).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Paradiso
“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.”
— John Steinbeck, book The Moon Is Down
Source: The Moon Is Down
Last update June 3, 2021. History
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John Steinbeck366
American writer 1902–1968Related quotes
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
Alfred Perceval Graves (1846–1931) Anglo-Irish poet, songwriter, and school inspector
Song, "The Little Red Lark".
Rudy Rucker (1946) American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author and philosopher
Source: The Sex Sphere (1983), p. 40
“Be calm. A man can do but little. Enough if that little be right.”
Poul Anderson book There Will Be Time
Source: There Will Be Time (1972), Chapter 11 (p. 126)
“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)
“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
“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 (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.