“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)
“So far as it goes, a small thing may give an analogy of great things, and show the tracks of knowledge.”
Dum taxat, rerum magnarum parva potest res
exemplare dare et vestigia notitiae.
Book II, lines 123–124 (tr. Rouse)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)
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Lucretius45
Roman poet and philosopher -94–-55 BCRelated quotes
“He has been told that knowledge is power, and knowledge consists of a great many small things.”
Richard M. Weaver (1910–1963) American scholar
Source: Ideas have Consequences (1948), p. 13.
Context: In the popular arena, one can tell … that the average man … imagines that an industrious acquisition of particulars will render him a man of knowledge. With what pathetic trust does he recite his facts! He has been told that knowledge is power, and knowledge consists of a great many small things.
“Great men are sometimes so even in small things.”
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 188.
William Bradford (1590–1657) English Separatist leader in Leiden, Holland and in Plymouth Colony (1590-1657)
Ch. 7.
“If you can't do great things, do small things in a great way.”
Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author
Robert Grosseteste (1175–1253) English bishop and philosopher
De iride (On the rainbow) Note this prediction of optical scientific instruments like the telescope and microscope, not to be utilized until 250 years later.
“The small become the great, the great the small;
The right thing happens to the happy man.”
Theodore Roethke book The Far Field
"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.
“Great things to compare with Small.”
John Ogilby (1600–1676) Scottish academic
The Works of Publius Virgilius Maro (2nd ed. 1654), Virgil's Bucolicks
Variant: If I may great things compare with Small.