
“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way”
L'alte non temo, e l'umili non sdegno.
Canto II, stanza 46 (tr. Fairfax)
Variant translation https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofquot00harbuoft#page/331/mode/1up: The proud I fear not, nor the meek disdain.
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)
L'alte non temo, e l'umili non sdegno.
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)
“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way”
“Ill can he rule the great, that cannot reach the small.”
Canto 2, stanza 43
The Faerie Queene (1589–1596), Book V
“Great acts are made up of small deeds.”
Letter to Edward Dowse (19 April 1803)
1800s, First Presidential Administration (1801–1805)
Incorrectly attributed to Tolkien. It is a line from the Hobbit movie that did not appear in the books.
“The small become the great, the great the small;
The right thing happens to the happy man.”
"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.
"A Kind Word", in DNRC Newsletter #9 (December 1995) http://web.archive.org/web/19970412134441/www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/newsletter/html/newsletter09.html
Inscription at the World Trade Center Memorial Wall http://web.archive.org/web/20031117142036/http://www.kremlin.ru/events/photos/2001/11/39974.shtml (15 November 2001).
2000 - 2005