“A strong sense of identity gives man an idea he can do no wrong; too little accomplishes the same.”

Source: Nightwood (1936), Ch. 7 : Go Down, Matthew

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 "A strong sense of identity gives man an idea he can do no wrong; too little accomplishes the same." by Djuna Barnes?

Djuna Barnes39

American Modernist writer, poet and artist 1892–1982

Elizabeth Goudge (1900–1984) English fiction writer

The Dean's Watch (1960), Chapter 9.2

“What one man can do himself directly is but little. If however he can stir up ten others to take up the task he has accomplished much.”

Wilbur Wright (1867–1912) American aviation pioneer

Letter to Octave Chanute (1 June 1900)
Context: Lilienthal’s enthusiastic efforts to arouse others may yet prove his most valuable contribution to the solution of the problem. What one man can do himself directly is but little. If however he can stir up ten others to take up the task he has accomplished much.

“Parties had eventually put the wrong man in the wrong place. De Mita was not without merits. However, he completely lacked any relating to government. This was obvious while he served as Minister, and was not accomplishing more than a little: and that little bit, usually, would have been better not having been accomplished.”

Indro Montanelli (1909–2001) Italian journalist

L'Italia del Novecento, p. 536.
1950s - 1990s

“I'm a Jewish boy from Jersey. I was born with a strong sense of right and wrong, and a strong sense that the world can be a ludicrous, unfair, inhumane place.”

Barry Sanders (1938) American academic, author

Oregon Live Saturday, April 16, 2011 http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/anna_griffin/index.ssf/2011/04/oregon_book_award_finalist_bar.html

“A faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity.”

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer

An Apology for Idlers.
Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (1881)

“At the same time that I think discretion the most useful talent a man can be master of, I look upon cunning to be the accomplishment of little, mean, ungenerous minds.”

Joseph Addison (1672–1719) politician, writer and playwright

No. 225.
The Tatler (1711–1714)
Context: At the same time that I think discretion the most useful talent a man can be master of, I look upon cunning to be the accomplishment of little, mean, ungenerous minds. Discretion points out the noblest ends to us, and pursues the most proper and laudable methods of attaining them: cunning has only private selfish aims, and sticks at nothing which may make them succeed. Discretion has large and extended views, and, like a well-formed eye, commands a whole horizon: cunning is a kind of short-sightedness, that discovers the minutest objects which are near at hand, but is not able to discern things at a distance. Discretion the more it is discovered, gives a greater authority to the person who possesses it: cunning, when it is once detected, loses its force, and makes a man incapable of bringing about even those events which he might have done had he passed only for a plain man. Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life: cunning is a kind of instinct, that only looks out after our immediate interest and welfare. Discretion is only found in men of strong sense and good understandings, cunning is often to be met with in brutes themselves, and in persons who are but the fewest removes from them.