“Most men give advice by the bucket, but take it by the grain.”
Reported in Raphael Lewin, Ed., The New Era (1872), Volume 2, p. 315.
“Meeting of the Presidium of the Petrograd Soviet With Delegates From the Food Supply Organisations” (27 January 1918); Collected Works, Vol. 26, p. 503.
1910s
“Most men give advice by the bucket, but take it by the grain.”
Reported in Raphael Lewin, Ed., The New Era (1872), Volume 2, p. 315.
“Most men give advice by the bucket, but take it by the grain.”
Misattributed
Source: William R(ounseville) Alger, American clergyman and writer [1822-1905]; reported in Raphael Lewin, Ed., The New Era (1872), Volume 2, p. 315.
Collected Works, Vol. 42, pp. 94–95.
Collected Works
“Most precious are the people; next come the spirits of land and grain; and last, the kings.”
(zh-TW) 民為貴,社稷次之,君為輕。
7B:14. Variant translations:
Of the first importance are the people, next comes the good of land and grains, and of the least importance is the ruler.
The people are the most important ... and the ruler is the least important.
The Mencius
Variant: The people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and grain come next; the sovereign counts for the least.
Source: The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order - Second Edition - (2003), Chapter 6, Somalia The Real Causes of Famine, p. 99
“A grain of gold will gild a great surface, but not so much as a grain of wisdom.”
Life Without Principle (1863)
Context: I did not know that mankind were suffering for want of gold. I have seen a little of it. I know that it is very malleable, but not so malleable as wit. A grain of gold will gild a great surface, but not so much as a grain of wisdom.
[January 2000, Homeotic Sexual Translocations and the Origin of Maize (Zea mays, Poaceae): A New Look at an Old Problem, Economic Botany, 54, 1, 7–42, 10.1007/BF02866598] (quote from p. 7)