“Maybe in the general scheme of things he couldn't find any meaning in life, but on a smaller scale it was okay. Not always, but a lot of the time.”

On n'est point un homme d'esprit pour avoir beaucoup d'idées, comme on n'est pas un bon général pour avoir beaucoup de soldats.
Maximes et Pensées (Van Bever, Paris :1923), #446
Reflections

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from "Tales of Power" (Chapter 10)

Source: Snow Falling on Cedars

Source: All These Things I've Done

Source: It Couldn't Be Done, stanza 1, The Path to Home, p. 38 (1919).

Source: The God of Small Things

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Revolt of the Masses (1929), Chapter XII: The Barbarism Of "Specialisation"
Context: He [the "specialist"] is one who, out of all that has to be known in order to be a man of judgment, is only acquainted with one science, and even of that one only knows the small corner in which he is an active investigator. He even proclaims it as a virtue that he takes no cognisance of what lies outside the narrow territory specially cultivated by himself, and gives the name of "dilettantism" to any curiosity for the general scheme of knowledge.

Variant: Nico, I've seen a lot of brave things. But what you just did? That was maybe the bravest.
Source: The House of Hades