
Incorrectly attributed to Tolkien. It is a line from the Hobbit movie that did not appear in the books.
Incorrectly attributed to Tolkien. It is a line from the Hobbit movie that did not appear in the books.
Source: How To Write A Sentence And How To Read One (2011), Chapter 10, Sentences That Are About Themselves (Aren't They All?), p. 137
“Great acts I reach to, to small things I bow.”
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)
“The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes.”
Thoughts and Aphorisms (1913), Karma
“It was a great deed to conquer Carthage, but a greater deed to conquer death.”
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XXIV: On despising death
“Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.”
"Whether Genius is Conscious of its Powers?"
The Plain Speaker (1826)