Trifles Quotes

• Things fit only to give weight to smoke.

  Aulus Persius Flaccus

  Giving, Weight, Fit

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• Wisdom includes not getting angry unnecessarily. The Law ignores trifles and the wise man does, too.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Wise, Men, Law

  Robert A. Heinlein (1985). “Job, a Comedy of Justice”, Del Rey

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• Exploding many things under the name of trifles is a very false proof either of wisdom or magnanimity, and a great check to virtuous actions with regard to fame.

  Jonathan Swift

  Names, Action, Fame

  Jonathan Swift (1861). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: With Cop'ous Notes and Additions”, p.612

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• As small letters hurt the sight, so do small matters him that is too much intent upon them; they vex and stir up anger, which begets an evil habit in him in reference to greater affairs.

  Plutarch

  Hurt, Sight, Evil

  Plutarch (1704). “Plutarch's Morals”, p.58

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• Out of many things a great heap will be formed.
  [Lat., De multis grandis acervus erit.]

  Ovid

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• A drop of water is as powerful as a thunder-bolt.

  Thomas Huxley

  Powerful, Water, Thunder

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• A fly is a very light burden; but if it were perpetually to return and settle on one's nose, it might weary us of our very lives.

  Fredrika Bremer

  Light, Noses, Might

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• Each particle of matter is an immensity, each leaf a world, each insect an inexplicable compendium.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  World, Matter, Inexplicable

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• How full of trifles everything is! It is only one's thoughts that fill a room with something more than furniture.

  Wallace Stevens

  Rooms, Furniture, Pettiness

  "Souvenirs and Prophecies: the Young Wallace Stevens" edited by Holly Stevens, (Ch. 9), 1977.

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• You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Method, Holmes, Observation

  1892 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,'The Boscombe Valley Mystery'.

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• And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray's In deepest consequence

  William Shakespeare

  Truth, Winning, Darkness

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 1, sc. 3, l. 123

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• In mortals there is a care for trifles which proceeds from love and conscience, and is most holy; and a care for trifles which comes of idleness and frivolity, and is most base. And so, also, there is a gravity proceeding from thought, which is most noble; and a gravity proceeding from dulness and mere incapability of enjoyment, which is most base.

  John Ruskin

  Care, Noble, Holy

  John Ruskin (1867). “Precious Thoughts: Moral and Religious. Gathered from the Works of John Ruskin, A. M.”, p.302

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• Society, dead or alive, can have no charm without intimacy and no intimacy without an interest in trifles.

  Arthur Balfour

  Society, Alive, Intimacy

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• He that shuns trifles must shun the world.

  George Chapman

  World

  George Chapman, Algernon Charles Swinburne (1875). “The Works of George Chapman: Poems and Minor Translations”, p.70

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• What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity.

  George Eliot

  Happiness, Smile, Wise

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• The instruments of darkness tell us truths.

  William Shakespeare

  Sad, Truth, Darkness

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 1, sc. 3, l. 123

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• Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.

  Michelangelo

  Education, Teacher, Art

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• Trifles light as air are to the jealous confirmations strong as proofs of holy writ.

  William Shakespeare

  Jealousy, Strong, Light

  'Othello' (1602-4) act 3, sc. 3, l. 323

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• It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Life, Success, Time

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• It is in the treatment of trifles that a person shows what they are.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Philosophical, Treatment, Shows

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• Trifles make up the happiness or the misery of mortal life.

  Alexander Smith

  Life, Happiness, Time

  Alexander Smith (1863). “Dreamthorp: A Book of Essays Written in the Country”, p.156

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• It is the mark of great people to treat trifles as trifles and important matters as important.

  Doris Lessing

  People, Priorities, Important

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• A great proportion of the wretchedness which has embittered married life, has originated in a negligence of trifles.

  Thomas Sprat

  Married, Proportion, Negligence

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• 

  The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Positive, Hope

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Carlyle (1841). “Essays”, p.4

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• We all go through the same things - it's all just a different kind of the same thing.

  Susan Glaspell

  Different, Kind, Different Kinds

  Susan Glaspell, C. W. E. Bigsby (1987). “Plays by Susan Glaspell”, p.44, Cambridge University Press

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