Trifles Quotes

• Great events make me quiet and calm; it is only trifles that irritate my nerves.

  Queen Victoria

  Events, Nerves, Calm

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• Trifles discover a character, more than actions of importance.

  William Shenstone

  Character, Action, Importance

  William Shenstone (1804). “Essays on Men and Manners”, p.122

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• There is a kind of latent omniscience, not only in every man, but in every particle.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Kind, Latent

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Linda Allardt (1982). “The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.97, Harvard University Press

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• It is curious to observe the triumph of slight incidents over the mind; and what incredible weight they have in forming and governing our opinions, both of men and things, that trifles light as air shall waft a belief into the soul, and plant it so immovable within it, that Euclid's demonstrations, could they be brought to batter it in breach, should not all have power to overthrow it!

  Laurence Sterne

  Men, Light, Air

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• Those who place their affections at first on trifles for amusement, will find these trifles become at last their most serious concerns.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Amusement, Lasts, Firsts

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• Small causes are sufficient to make a man uneasy, when great ones are not in the way: for want of a block he will stumble at a straw.

  Jonathan Swift

  Block, Men, Want

  Jonathan Swift, Thomas Roscoe (1859). “The works of Jonathan Swift, D.D.: with copious notes and additions and a memoir of the author”, p.614

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• A grain of sand leads to the fall of a mountain when the moment has come for the mountain to fall.

  Ernest Renan

  Fall, Mountain, Moments

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• O jealousy! thou magnifier of trifles.

  Friedrich Schiller

  Jealousy, Envy

  Friedrich Schiller (1849). “Early Dramas and Romances”, p.135

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• Whoever shall review his life, will find that the whole tenor of his conduct has been determined by some accident of no apparent moment.

  Samuel Johnson

  Determined, Moments, Reviews

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.190

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• Our civilization has decided that determining the guilt or innocence of men is a thing too important to be trusted to trained men. When it wants a library catalogued, or the solar system discovered, or any trifle of that kind, it uses up its specialists. But when it wishes anything done which is really serious, it collects twelve of the ordinary men standing round. The same thing was done, if I remember right, by the Founder of Christianity.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Funny, Humorous, Men

  Tremendous Trifles "The Twelve Men" (1909)

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• It is but the littleness of man that seeth no greatness in trifles.

  Wendell Phillips

  Greatness, Men

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• He that despiseth small things will perish by little and little.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Littles, Small Things

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1870). “The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.338, Рипол Классик

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• At every trifle take offense, that always shows great pride or little sense.

  Alexander Pope

  Pride, Littles, Shows

  Alexander Pope (2015). “An Essay on Criticism”, p.13, Sheba Blake Publishing

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• A spark is a molecule of matter, yet may it kindle the world; vast is the mighty ocean, but drops have made it vast. Despise not thou small things, either for evil or for good; for a look may work thy ruin, or a word create thy wealth.

  Martin Farquhar Tupper

  Ocean, Evil, World

  Martin Farquhar Tupper (1871). “Proverbial philosophy: in 4 ser., now first complete”, p.66

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• One must not trifle with love

  Alfred de Musset

  Love

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• Affection, like melancholy, magnifies trifles.

  Leigh Hunt

  Affection, Melancholy, Magnifying

  Leigh Hunt, Thornton Leigh Hunt (1862). “The Correspondence of Leigh Hunt”, p.31, London : Smith, Elder

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• All our pursuits, from childhood to manhood, are only trifles of different sorts and sizes, proportioned to our years and views.

  Samuel Richardson

  Views, Years, Childhood

  Samuel Richardson (2014). “Clarissa Harlowe, or The History of a Young Lady - Complete”, p.960, Simon and Schuster

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• What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.

  Joseph Addison

  Inspirational, Life, Friendship

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• Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.

  Samuel Johnson

  Knowledge, Curiosity, Might

  Samuel Johnson (1784). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes..”, p.97

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• A man of sense only trifles with them, plays with them, humors and flatters them, as he does with a sprightly and forward child; but he neither consults them about, nor trusts them with, serious matters.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Children, Men, Play

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.91, Oxford University Press

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• Small things are best: Grief and unrest To rank and wealth are given; But little things On little wings Bear little souls to Heaven.

  Frederick William Faber

  Grief, Wings, Heaven

  Frederick William Faber (1857). “Poems ... Second edition”, p.198

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• A little thing comforts us because a little thing afflicts us.

  Blaise Pascal

  Comfort, Littles, Little Things

  Blaise Pascal, Thomas Adam, Edward Bickersteth (1833). “Thoughts on religion”, p.121

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• Man shows his character best in trifles.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Character, Men, Shows

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• Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Perfection, Dull, Irony

  W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

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• Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Baby, Children, Dragons

  "Tremendous Trifles". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1909.

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