“The small things of life were often so much bigger than the great things, she decided, wondering how many writers and philosophers had said this before her, the trivial pleasures like cooking, one's home, little poems especially sad ones, solitary walks, funny things seen and overheard.”

—  Barbara Pym , book Less than Angels

Less than Angels (1955), chapter 9

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 "The small things of life were often so much bigger than the great things, she decided, wondering how many writers and p…" by Barbara Pym?
Barbara Pym photo
Barbara Pym 7
British writer 1913–1980

Related quotes

Henri Bergson photo

“A philosopher worthy of the name has never said more than a single thing: and even then it is something he has tried to say, rather than actually said. And he has said only one thing because he has seen only one point: and at that it was not so much a vision as a contact…”

Henri Bergson book An Introduction to Metaphysics

Un philosophe digne de ce nom n'a jamais dit qu'une seule chose : encore a-t-il plutôt cherché à la dire qu'il ne l'a dite véritablement. Et il n'a dit qu'une seule chose parce qu'il n'a su qu'un seul point : encore fut-ce moins une vision qu'un contact...
"L’intuition philosophique (Philosophical Intuition)" http://obvil.paris-sorbonne.fr/corpus/critique/bergson_pensee/body-5 (10 April 1911); translated by Mabelle L. Andison in: Henri Bergson, The Creative Mind: An Introduction to Metaphysics, Courier Dover Publications, 2012, p. 91

E.M. Forster photo

“It is better to have a home of one’s own than to always be a typist. Hilda did not talk quite as she should, and her husband had not scrupled to correct her. She had never forgotten – it was such a small thing, yet she could not forget it – she had never forgotten that night on their honeymoon when she had said something ungrammatical about the relative position of their limbs.”

E.M. Forster (1879–1970) English novelist

The Obelisk
The Life to Come and other stories (1972)

“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.”

Laurie Colwin (1944–1992) Novelist, short story writer, food writer

“You'll see, you'll come to understand. These big things, these terrible things, are not the important ones. If they were, how could one go on living? No, it is the small, little things that make up a day, that bring fullness and happiness to a life.”

Benedict Freedman book Mrs. Mike

Source: Mrs. Mike

Ray Bradbury photo

“She didn't want to know how a thing was done, but why…. Luckily, queer ones like her don't happen often.”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Source: Fahrenheit 451

Willa Cather photo

“She had never known before how much the country meant to her. The chirping of the insects in the long grass had been like the sweetest music. She had felt as if her heart were hiding down there, somewhere, with the quail and the plover and all the little wild things that crooned or buzzed in the sun. Under the long shaggy ridges, she felt the future stirring.”

Willa Cather book O Pioneers!

Part I, Ch. 5
O Pioneers! (1913)

“Eugenie thought of this often. Men had told her many sweet things about herself, but never before that she was important. It was the nicest compliment she had ever received.”

Sheri S. Tepper book Grass

Source: Grass (1989), Chapter 7 (p. 120)

François de La Rochefoucauld photo

“Those who apply themselves too much to little things often become incapable of great ones.”

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

Ceux qui s'appliquent trop aux petites choses deviennent ordinairement incapables des grandes.
Maxim 41.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)

Philipp Meyer photo

“Maybe all people with minds like Isaac's were the same. She knew he would make a much larger contribution than she ever would - he cared only about things much bigger than his own life. Ideas, truths, the reasons things were. As if he himself, his own existence, was somehow incidental.”

Philipp Meyer book American Rust

American Rust (2009)

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa photo

“One was my movement, which I’m very conscious of in films, especially coming from martial arts. Think about how many times a character is seen just sitting or walking or standing, it’s a lot of time in film and it says so much about a character. So I’ve always been keen to pay attention to movement and that was one thing he said he noticed. Never have I heard a director talk like that about me. And also he said that the eyes were important because it really has to come through the make-up. So he was interested in those two aspects especially…”

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (1950) American actor

On being chosen for the role of Krull in Planet of the Apes in “Comic-Con 2001: An Interview With Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa” http://fanboyplanet.com/comic-con-2001-an-interview-with-cary-hiroyuki-tagawa/ in Fanboy Planet (2001 Jul 27)

Related topics