Listen, Little Man! (1948)
Context: The Little Man does not know that he is little, and he is afraid of knowing it. He covers up his smallness and narrowness with illusions of strength and greatness, of others' strength and greatness. He is proud of his great generals but not proud of himself. He admires thought which he did not have and not the thought he did have. He believes in things all the more thoroughly the less he comprehends them, and does not believe in the correctness of those ideas which he comprehends most easily.
“The wise man looks into space and does not regard the small as too little, nor the great as too big, for he knows that, there is no limit to dimensions.”
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Zhuangzi 38
classic Chinese philosopher -369–-286 BCRelated quotes
Vice and Virtue, iii
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part II - Elementary Morality
“3400. Men never think their Fortune too great, nor their Wit too little.”
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
“It is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams.”
The third and fourth sentences are a paraphrase of a sentence by G. K. Chesterton: "I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act." Generally Speaking, "On Holland' (1928).
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), First Inaugural address (1981)
Context: It is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We're not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. So, with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope. We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look.
Diogenes of Sinope, as quoted in Pearls of Thought (1882), edited by Maturin Murray Ballou, p. 22
Misattributed
Nus ne puet estre trop parliers
Qui sovent tel chose ne die
Qui torné li est affolie,
Car li sages dit et retrait:
Qui trop parole, il se mesfait.
Source: Perceval or Le Conte du Graal, Line 1650.
The Patriot Game (1986)
Address at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, March 7, 1953
Speaking Of Canada - (1959)