“Minds that have nothing to confer
Find little to perceive.”

—  William Wordsworth

Yes, Thou art Fair, Yet Be Not Moved, st. 2 (1845).

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 "Minds that have nothing to confer Find little to perceive." by William Wordsworth?
William Wordsworth photo
William Wordsworth 306
English Romantic poet 1770–1850

Related quotes

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg photo

“The great rule: If the little bit you have is nothing special in itself, at least find a way of saying it that is a little bit special.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) German scientist, satirist

E 55
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook E (1775 - 1776)

François de La Rochefoucauld photo

“The stamp of great minds is to suggest much in few words; by contrast, little minds have the gift of talking a great deal and saying nothing.”

François de La Rochefoucauld book Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims

Comme c’est le caractère des grands esprits de faire entendre en peu de paroles beaucoup de choses, les petits esprits au contraire ont le don de beaucoup parler, et de ne rien dire.
Maxim 142.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)

Arthur Conan Doyle photo

“To a great mind, nothing is little,' remarked Holmes, sententiously.”

Arthur Conan Doyle book A Study in Scarlet

Source: A Study in Scarlet

Ramakrishna photo

“God is directly perceived by the mind, but not by this ordinary mind.”

Ramakrishna (1836–1886) Indian mystic and religious preacher

Source: The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (1942), p. 68
Context: God is directly perceived by the mind, but not by this ordinary mind. It is the pure mind that perceives God, and at that time this ordinary mind does not function. A mind that has the slightest trace of attachment to the world cannot be called pure. When all the impurities of the mind are removed, you may call that mind Pure Mind or Pure Ātman.

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi photo

“Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth…These are the things to fear…”

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (1933) Japanese actress
Lord Dunsany photo

“I know of the boons that machinery has conferred on men, all tyrants have boons to confer, but service to the dynasty of steam and steel is a hard service and gives little leisure to fancy to flit from field to field.”

Lord Dunsany (1878–1957) Irish writer and dramatist

Romance of Modern Stage; National Review of London; 1911

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar photo

“It is, indeed an incredible fact that what the human mind, at its deepest and most profound, perceives as beautiful finds its realization in external nature.… What is intelligible is also beautiful.”

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910–1995) physicist

From a lecture, "Beauty and the Quest for Beauty in Science" given at the International Symposium in recognition of Robert R. Wilson on April 27, 1979 at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois.

Pliny the Younger photo

“Let us strive then, while Life is ours, to secure that Death may find we have left little or nothing he can destroy.”
Proinde, dum suppetit vita, enitamur ut mors quam paucissima quae abolere possit inveniat.

Pliny the Younger (61–113) Roman writer

Letter 5, 8.
Letters, Book V

George MacDonald photo

“Benefits conferred awaken love in some minds, as surely as benefits received in others.”

George MacDonald book Phantastes

Phantastes (1858)

Related topics