A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones.
There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.
Moralities, ethics, laws, customs, beliefs, doctrines - these are of trifling import. All that matters is that the miraculous become the norm.
Frequently the more trifling the subject, the more animated and protracted the discussion.
It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme Rudely appealed to on each trifling theme.
To say that a man is your Friend means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy.
If a weakly mortal is to do anything in the world besides eat the bread thereof, there must be a determined subordination of the whole nature to the one aim no trifling with time, which is passing, with strength which is only too limited.
Events of great consequence often spring from trifling circumstances.
Though so trifling, the success of our first Buffalo hunt gave us quite a social lift.
They that apply themselves to trifling matters commonly become incapable of great ones.
I have not wasted my life trifling with literary fools in taverns, as Johnson did, when he should have been shaking England with the thunder of his spirit
The most trifling actions that affect a man's credit are to be regarded. The sound of your hammer at five in the morning, or at nine at night, heard by a creditor, makes him easy six months longer; but if he sees you at the billiard-table, or hears your voice at a tavern, when you should be at work, he sends for his money the next day.
Solon used to say that speech was the image of actions; . . . that laws were like cobwebs, - for that if any trifling or powerless thing fell into them, they held it fast; while if it were something weightier, it broke through them and was off.
There is something in the decay of nature that awakens thought, even in the most trifling mind.
In revolutions the occasions may be trifling but great interest are at stake.
Silence - Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
To say that a man is your Friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy. Most contemplate only what would be the accidental and trifling advantages of Friendship, as that the Friend can assist in time of need by his substance, or his influence, or his counsel. Even the utmost goodwill and harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for Friendship, for Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody.
Surely a long life must be somewhat tedious, since we are forced to call in so many trifling things to help rid us of our time, which will never return.
If I set for myself a task, be it so trifling, I shall see it through. How else shall I have confidence in myself to do important things?
For as the interposition of a rivulet, however small, will occasion the line of the phalanx to fluctuate, so any trifling disagreement will be the cause of seditions; but they will not so soon flow from anything else as from the disagreement between virtue and vice, and next to that between poverty and riches.
or simply: