
“Reserve the great matters till the end, and the small matters give at the beginning.”
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XXI Letters. Personal Records. Dated Notes.
Letter to Sir Francis Walsingham, from off Cape Sagres, Portugal (17 May 3067)
“Reserve the great matters till the end, and the small matters give at the beginning.”
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XXI Letters. Personal Records. Dated Notes.
Theodore Roosevelt, Address Before Congress (February 9, 1919).
"Bring Back the Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!" http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1838466.1403324800!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_970/trump21n-1-web.jpg An advert taken out by Trump in the New York Daily News and other newspapers in the wake of the arrests of the Central Park Five (whose convictions were eventually vacated once the real perpetrator was identified in 2002) (1 May 1989)
1980s
“Think where man's glory most begins and ends
And say my glory was I had such friends.”
The Municipal Gallery Revisited http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1659/, st. 7
Last Poems (1936-1939)
Variant: Think where man's glory most begins and ends. And say my glory was I had such friends.
Context: You that would judge me, do not judge alone
This book or that, come to this hallowed place
Where my friends' portraits hang and look thereon;
Ireland's history in their lineaments trace;
Think where man's glory most begins and ends
And say my glory was I had such friends.
1840s, The Conservative (1841)
Context: It will never make any difference to a hero what the laws are. His greatness will shine and accomplish itself unto the end, whether they second him or not. If he have earned his bread by drudgery, and in the narrow and crooked ways which were all an evil law had left him, he will make it at least honorable by his expenditure. Of the past he will take no heed; for its wrongs he will not hold himself responsible: he will say, All the meanness of my progenitors shall not bereave me of the power to make this hour and company fair and fortunate. Whatsoever streams of power and commodity flow to me, shall of me acquire healing virtue, and become fountains of safety. Cannot I too descend a Redeemer into nature? Whosoever hereafter shall name my name, shall not record a malefactor, but a benefactor in the earth. If there be power in good intention, in fidelity, and in toil, the north wind shall be purer, the stars in heaven shall glow with a kindlier beam, that I have lived. I am primarily engaged to myself to be a public servant of all the gods, to demonstrate to all men that there is intelligence and good will at the heart of things, and ever higher and yet higher leadings. These are my engagements; how can your law further or hinder me in what I shall do to men? On the other hand, these dispositions establish their relations to me. Wherever there is worth, I shall be greeted. Wherever there are men, are the objects of my study and love. Sooner of later all men will be my friends, and will testify in all methods the energy of their regard. I cannot thank your law for my protection. I protect it. It is not in its power to protect me. It is my business to make myself revered. I depend on my honor, my labor, and my dispositions for my place in the affections of mankind, and not on any conventions or parchments of yours.
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 128.
Muller is often attributed with a version of this saying, and the quote (with attribution to Muller) appears as early as 1897 in The Churchman https://books.google.com/books?id=cpdOAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA25-PA45&lpg=RA25-PA45&dq=The+beginning+of+anxiety+is+the+end+of+faith,+and+the+beginning+of+true+faith+is+the+end+of+anxiety+%2B+the+churchman&source=bl&ots=3x_wtX82mF&sig=gGHZUKxXWa5BfvRfzeY_F8zA9dM&hl=; however, no source written by Muller can be found to confirm him as having said this.
Source: Writings, The Institutes of Biblical Law (1973), P. 308
“Character building begins in our infancy and continues until death.”