“The small become the great, the great the small;
The right thing happens to the happy man.”
"The Right Thing," ll. 7-9
The Far Field (1964)
Context: God bless the roots! — Body and soul are one!
The small become the great, the great the small;
The right thing happens to the happy man.
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Theodore Roethke 86
American poet 1908–1963Related quotes

“Great art is the contempt of a great man for small art.”
Notebook L (1945) edited by Edmund Wilson
Quoted, Notebooks

“Great things to compare with Small.”
The Works of Publius Virgilius Maro (2nd ed. 1654), Virgil's Bucolicks
Variant: If I may great things compare with Small.

“To compare great things with small.”
Parvis componere magna.
Book I, line 23 (tr. H. Rushton Fairclough)
Eclogues (37 BC)

“If you can't do great things, do small things in a great way.”

Source: (1776), Book IV, Chapter I, p. 469.

“Tonight the small are free from the great and the great protect the small.”
Hamadryad, the King Cobra in Ch. 10 "Full-Moon"
Mary Poppins (1934)

“If we may compare small things with great.”
Si parva licet componere magnis.
Book IV, line 176 (tr. Fairclough). Cf. Eclogues 1.23.
Georgics (29 BC)