“Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.”
Washington Irving (1783–1859) writer, historian and diplomat from the United States
“Great minds have purpose, others have wishes. Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortunes; but great minds rise above them.”
"Philip of Pokanoket : An Indian Memoir".
A more extensive statement not found as such in this work is attributed to Irving in Elbert Hubbard's Scrap Book (1923) edited by Roycroft Shop:
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819–1820)
Variant: Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.
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Washington Irving46
writer, historian and diplomat from the United States 1783–1859Related quotes
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)
“Danger (the spur of all great minds) is ever
The curb to your tame spirits.”
George Chapman The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois
The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois (1613), Act V, scene i.
“To a great mind, nothing is little,' remarked Holmes, sententiously.”
Arthur Conan Doyle book A Study in Scarlet
Source: A Study in Scarlet
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–1859) British historian and Whig politician
On Horace Walpole (1833)
“Little minds have little worries, big minds have no time for worries.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) British philosopher and political economist
As quoted in Egoists: A Book of Supermen (1909) by James Huneker, p. 367
