“Minor inconveniences are just that, and nothing more.”

Introduction, p. xiii
Bernard Shaw: A Reassessment (1969)
Context: When we are lulled into somnolence by lack of challenge every molehill tends to become a mountain, every minor inconvenience an intolerable imposition. For a self-chosen reality tends to become a prison. The factors that protect and insulate civilized man can easily end by suffocating him unless he possesses a high degree of self-discipline, the 'highly developed vital sense' that Shaw speaks of. And since clever and sensitive people are inclined to lack self-discipline, a high degree of culture usually involves a high degree of pessimism. This is what has happened to Western civilisation over the past two centuries. It explains why so many distinguished artists, writers and musicians have taken such a negative view of the human situation.

Source: Striking Thoughts (2000), p. 120

Wild Ducks Flying Backward (2005)

Source: The Giver

Variant: Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one.
Source: 1984

Source: Kill and Tell

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

"On Running After One's Hat"
All Things Considered (1908)