Small Things Quotes

A key point to bear in mind: The value of attentiveness varies in proportion to its object. You're better off not giving the small things more time than they deserve. ~ Marcus Aurelius

Each family prayer, each episode of family scripture study, and each family home evening is a brushstroke on the canvas of our souls. No one event may appear to be very impressive or memorable. But just as the yellow and gold and brown strokes of paint complement each other and produce an impressive masterpiece, so our consistency in doing seemingly small things can lead to significant spiritual results. ~ David A. Bednar

You don't have to be successful on a grand scale like winning a talent competition or writing a New York Times bestseller - if you have enough small things that you can be successful at then eventually they outshine all your failures. ~ Lindsey Rietzsch

Never hesitate to take what you think are small things to God; after all, EVERYTHING is small to God. ~ Joyce Meyer

When self control is lacking in small things, the ability to apply it to matters of importance withers away. Every day in which one does not at least deny himself some trifle is badly spent and a threat to the day following. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Great things are wrought through simple and small things. Like the small flecks of gold that accumulate over time into a large treasure, our small and simple acts of kindness and service will accumulate into a life filled with love for Heavenly Father, devotion to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a sense of peace and joy each time we reach out to one another. ~ M. Russell Ballard

But more important than any of these was the vast, accretive weight of small things, from planes which hadn't crashed to men and women who had come to the correct place at the perfect time and thus founded generations. He saw kisses exchanged in doorways and wallets returned and men who had come to a splitting of the way and had chosen the right fork. He saw a thousand random meetings that weren't random, ten thousand right decisions, a hundred thousand right answers, a million acts of unacknowledged kindness ... For every brick that landed on the ground instead of some little kid's head, for every tornado that missed the trailer park, for every missile that didn't fly, for every hand stayed from violence, there was the Tower. ~ Stephen King

Life isn't only about the big moments whether they be good or bad. Maybe it's about the small things that stretch out to strengthen the most tenuous bound. ~ Sarah Dessen

Social work is an opportunity for huge hearts they remember to do small things. ~ Kishore Bansal

The way you do the small things, is the way you do the big things ~ Steven Aitchison

One of the best things in the gospel of Jesus is the stress it lays on small things. It ascribes more value to quality than to quantity; it teaches that God does not ask how much we do, but how we do it. ~ James Freeman Clarke

A clean and sensitive conscience, a steady and scrupulous integrity in small things as well as large, is the most valuable of all possessions, to a nation as to an individual. ~ Henry Van Dyke

The way we do small things determines the way that we do everything. If we execute our minor tasks well, we will also excel at our larger efforts. Mastery then becomes our way of being. But more than this - each tiny effort builds on the next, so that brick by brick, magnificent things can be created, great confidence grows and uncommon dreams are realized. The truly wise recognize that small daily improvements always lead to exceptional results over time. ~ Anonymous

They sensed somehow that she lived in the prenumbral shadows between two worlds, just beyond the grasp of their power. That a woman that they had already damned, now had little left to lose, and could therefore be dangerous. So on the days that the radio played Ammu's songs, people avoided her, making little loops around her, because everybody agreed that it was best to just Let Her Be. ~ Arundhati Roy

Be a giver. Share whatsoever you can. And remember, I am not making any distinction between. small things and great things. If you can smile whole-heartedly, hold somebody's hand and smile, then it is a creative act, a great creative act. Just embrace somebody to your heart and you are creative. Just look with loving eyes at somebody; just a loving look can change the whole world of a person. ~ Rajneesh

Repentance can become a very, very deep phenomenon in you if you understand the responsibility. Then even a small thing, if it becomes a repentance
not just verbal, not just on the surface; if it goes deep to the roots, if you repent from the roots; if your whole being shakes and trembles and cries, and tears come out; not only out of your eyes but out of every cell of your body, then repentance can become a transfiguration. ~ Osho

She's fifteen, above the age of consent, and he's seventeen, but he's still "the boy" in every conversation. She's "the young woman".

Words are not small things. ~ Fredrik Backman

If you feel stuck in your life, like it's passing you by, like there's something way better for you somewhere out there and you're missing it, try this - try throwing yourself into the small things and repeating to yourself: This is where I start. ~ Rob Bell

Do small things with great Love ~ Mother Teresa

Every dish in the ferial cuisine, however, provides a double or treble delight: Not only is the body nourished and the palate pleased, the mind is intrigued by the triumph of ingenuity over scarcity - by the making of slight materials into a considerable matter. A man can do worse than to be poor. He can miss altogether the sight of the greatness of small things. ~ Robert Farrar Capon

This part of optics, when well understood, shows us how we may make things a very long distance off appear as if placed very close, and large near things appear very small, and how we may make small things placed at a distance appear any size we want, so that it may be possible for us to read the smallest letters at incredible distances, or to count sand, or seed, or any sort or minute objects. ~ Robert Grosseteste

Still, these days when I daydream about the movie, I don't think about the big picture. It's more fun for me to think of little things that would add to the movie. I like to think the powers that be would let me amuse myself with some small things in order to shut me up while they re-write the screenplay to turn Kvothe into a lesbian, shape-changing unicorn.
~ Patrick Rothfuss

I brushed my hands on the pockets of my jeans, still marvelling at the fact I wasn't wearing a gown. And that I had real underwear on. It was the small things ~ Allison Pang

In great affairs men show themselves as they wish to be seen, in small things they show themselves as they are ~ Nicolas Chamfort

We cannot all do great things. But we can do small things with great love. -Mother Teresa ~ Louisa Thomsen Brits

If you will stay close to nature, to its simplicity, to the small things hardly noticeable, those things can unexpectedly become great and immeasurable. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

The wine god sighed. 'Oh Hades if I know. But remember, boy, that a kind act can sometimes be as powerful as a sword. As a mortal, I was never a great fighter or athlete or poet. I only made wine. The people in my village laughed at me. They said I would never amount to anything. Look at me now. Sometimes small things can become very large indeed.' He left me alone to think about that. And as I watched Clarisse and Chris singing a stupid campfire song together, holding hands in the darkness, where they thought nobody could see them, I had to smile. ~ Rick Riordan

Let others lead small lives, but not you.. Let others argue over small things, but not you.. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you.. Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you. ~ Jim Rohn

In the aftermath of loss, we do what we've always done, although we are changed, maybe more afraid. We do what we can, as well as we can. My pastor, Veronica, one Sunday told the story of a sparrow lying in the street with its legs straight up in the air, sweating a little under its feathery arms. A warhorse walks up to the bird and asks, "What on earth are you doing?" The sparrow replies, "I heard the sky was falling, and I wanted to help." The horse laughs a big, loud, sneering horse laugh, and says, "Do you really think you're going to hold back the sky, with those scrawny little legs?" And the sparrow says, "One does what one can." So what can I do? Not much. Mother Teresa said that none of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love. This reminder has saved me many times. ~ Anne Lamott

If you appreciate the small things, you're likely to get the big ones. ~ Jonas Eriksson

Focus very clearly on a few small things. The purpose of a business is to give someone something that they want. Have a product or service that's really excellent. What can you offer that no one else can offer and will satisfy them at a higher level than what anyone else can? ~ Brian Tracy

Nothing that I can encounter today can be as bad as what is behind me. There are small things that used to upset me, but now I just think: Who cares? ~ Ingrid Betancourt

He understands that it is the hidden life, not the outward presentation, that moves God "to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him" (2 Chronicles 16:9). For if we disregard small things while attending to large things, then it is plain that our first priority is pleasing men rather than serving our Lord Who sees all things. ~ Bryan Fraser

Most of us forget to take time for wonder, praise and gratitude until it is almost too late. Gratitude is a many-colored quality, reaching in all directions. It goes out for small things and for large; it is a God-ward going. ~ Faith Baldwin

Some people may find material chores irksome; they would prefer to use their time to talk and be with others. They haven't yet realized that the thousand and one small things that have to be done each day, the cycle of dirtying and cleaning, were given by God to enable us to communicate through matter. . . . We are all called to do, not extraordinary things, but very ordinary things, with an extraordinary love that flows from the heart of God.

. . . A community which has a sense of work done well, quietly and lovingly, humbly and without fuss, can become a community where the presence of God is profoundly lived. . . . So the community will take on a whole contemplative dimension. ~ Jean Vanier

The only reason you do not do great things is because you timidly cling to small things. Will you let loose of small things and bear the uncertainty of having nothing for a while? Do this and eventually you will do great things. ~ Vernon Howard

I feel very small. I don't understand. I have so much courage, fire, energy, for many things, yet I get so hurt, so wounded by small things. ~ Anais Nin

Many small people, in small places, doing small things can change the world. ~ Eduardo Galeano

Such Small Things:
For a long time there were only your footprints & laughter in our dreams & even from such small things, we knew we could not wait to love you forever. ~ Brian Andreas

energy. My beauty is radiant. I am a calm and patient parent. Today I will relish the small things. Today I will make my home beautiful. I choose to eat healthful foods today. My home is a sanctuary. I can remain effortlessly in the present moment. My creativity is inspiring. I can get through any situation with grace. No matter what happens today, I will cultivate inner peace. I can change the world. All is well. ~ Jennifer L. Scott

We are gripped by God's will of love, and must help carry out that will in this world, in small things as in great things, in saving as in pardoning. To be glad instruments of God's love in this imperfect world is the service to which we are called. ~ Albert Schweitzer

When I'm getting ready for a movie, let's just say my diet is 'The Antisocial Diet.' I don't go to restaurants. I don't eat what I really want to eat. I don't eat much. I eat small things frequently. Lots of protein and greens. And I don't eat with people, because there's a tendency to get social and then to overeat. ~ Jason Statham

Express gratitude for the greatness of small things. ~ Richie Norton

Being the vice-captain, you see a lot of things on the field. You have to try and help the captain as much as you can and lead by example on the field. Small things like getting a run-out or taking a catch makes the other boys try and lift their standards. So yes, I do have an important role, even if I'm not captain. ~ Yuvraj Singh

It is the sum of small things successfully done that lifts a life out of bondage to the humdrum. ~ Dorothea Brande

We want small things, tiny joys. The feeling that tomorrow is going to bring us bright colors, shiny tinsel--the delicious smell of cooking, a moment's adventure in a sideshow. We want hope. We want love. And Christ, it shouldn't be too much to ask for in this cockeyed world--and yet it is. Somehow, it is. ~ Lisa Mannetti

When you are not the doer how can the attachment happen? You do a small thing and you become attached. You say, "I have done this." You would like everybody to know that you have done this and you have done that. This ego is the barrier for the supreme understanding. Drop the doer and let things happen. That's what Tilopa means by being loose and natural. ~ Rajneesh

The best perfection of a religious man is to do common things in a perfect manner. A constant fidelity in small things is a great and heroic virtue. ~ Bonaventure

It's sad that in a world of billions, people can still feel isolated and alone. Sometimes all it takes to brighten up someone's day is a smile or kind word, or the generous actions of a complete stranger. Small things, the tiny details, these are the things that matter in life - the little glint in the eye, curve of a lip, nod of a head, wave of a hand - such minuscule movements have huge ripple effects. ~ Shaun Hick

There are many people who can do big things, but there are very few people who will do the small things. ~ Mother Teresa

Big things are often just small things that are noticed. - Ed Kennedy ~ Markus Zusak

My hindsight seemed unbearably clear tonight. I could see every mistake I'd made, every bit of harm I'd done, the small things and the big things. ~ Stephenie Meyer

Only the small things in life are important ~ Joseph Roth

Nations, like individuals, have been always disposed from interest or vanity to forget their day of small things; like individuals, too, they have always been unwilling to isolate their origins from the great ones who have gone before. ~ Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett

There are no great things, only small things with great love. Happy are those. ~ Mother Teresa

Perfection is no small thing, but it is made up of small things. ~ Michelangelo

You know what i like about buttons? They're very small things that hold bigger things together. Awfully important, buttons - little but strong. ~ Trenton Lee Stewart

Well, normally I'm against big things. I think the world is going to be saved by millions of small things. Too many things can go wrong when they get big. - Pete Seeger (on how he felt about attending his big 90th birthday bash last year) ~ Pete Seeger

The last sin, the sin against the Holy Ghost - to lie to oneself. Lying to other people - that's a small thing in comparison. ~ Rose Macaulay

You are discontented with the world because you can't get just the small things that suit your pleasure, not because it's a world where myriads of men and women are ground by wrong and misery, and tainted with pollution. ~ George Eliot

One tries to be an observer as an actor and indeed as a director because the small things, the give-away things are what are really interesting to a performer. ~ Janet Suzman

Her mother had smelled of cold and scales, her father of stone dust and dog. She imagined her husband's mother, whom she had never met, had a whiff of rotting apples, though her stationary had stunk of baby powder and rose perfume. Sally was starch, cedar, her dead grandmother sandalwood, her uncle, swiss cheese. People told her she smelled like garlic, like chalk, like nothing at all. Lotto, clean as camphor at his neck and belly, like electrified pennies at the armpit, like chlorine at the groin. She swallowed. Such things, details noticed only on the edges of thought would not return.
'Land,' Mathilde said, 'odd name for a guy like you.'
'Short for Roland,' the boy said.
Where the August sun had been steaming over the river, a green cloud was forming. It was still terrifically hot, but the birds had stopped singing. A feral cat scooted up the road on swift paws. It would rain soon.
'Alright Roland,' Mathilde said, suppressing as sigh, 'sing your song. ~ Lauren Groff

Maybe it will be a daisy, a white butterfly, a snowflake which transforms your life. ~ Marty Rubin

It is so often the small things overlooked which leave our schemes in ruins. ~ Joe Abercrombie

In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love." Some ~ Jack Kornfield

The mind is a real dangerous neighborhood to travel by ourselves. ~ Mike Tyson

I hope they sang together, as they so often did. I hope they retired to our wagon and spent time in each other's arms. I hope they lay near each other afterward and spoke softly of small things. I hope they were together, busy with loving each other, until the end came. ~ Patrick Rothfuss

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

He noticed that she threw away the crumbled bus ticket on the street as soon as she got down. He picked it up and put it in his pocket along with his own a memorabilia of their first date together, just like a strand of her hair he would find later on his shirt and the broken pen cap that she would go on to search in the laboratory and so many other such small things which he would collect. ~ Faraaz Kazi

You always take care of your health. Sometimes unhygienic food is good too. If for one's happiness, one gets ill a time or two, it's certainly worth it. You miss the most beautiful days of rain by just sitting inside your home. Life's enjoyment is in these small things. You are never going to get happiness if you'll search for it outside. Start living your life on your own terms for once, every happiness will come to you on its own. ~ Kisnaa Anita Birhman

When we come under the spell of the deeper domain of technology, its economic character and even its power aspect fascinate us less than its playful side. Then we realize we that we are involved in a play, a dance of the spirit, which cannot be grasped by calculation. What is ultimately left for science is intuition alone - a call of destiny.
This playful feature manifests itself more clearly in small things than in the gigantic works of our world. The crude observer can only be impressed by large quantities - chiefly when they are in motion - and yet there are as many organs in a fly as in a leviathan. ~ Ernst Junger

Times like this were special. Memory builders. When something extraordinary happened to a person the
kind of things remembered forever after it didn't have to be a life-changing event like a graduation or
marriage or birth of a child. It more often was the small things. The sheer joy of summer sunlight on a
fragrant flower. The giggle of a toddler. The brush of a lover's fingertips. And the person marks the
moment with the flashing insight thinking ... This is special. I should remember this ~ Sandra Hill

People who say that small things don't bother them have never slept in a room with a mosquito. ~ Dennis Rainey

But what actually matters are the hundreds of small things that the powerful do - or don't do - to establish their legitimacy, like sleeping in the bed of an innocent man you just shot accidentally and scattering your belongings around his house. ~ Malcolm Gladwell

I guarantee it will change your life, but only because everything does, however small. ~ Johnny Rich

I do small things. I try to do good things every day. ~ Jackie Chan

There is a time for some things, and a time for all things; a time for great things, and a time for small things. ~ Miguel De Cervantes

No one person has to do it all but if each one of us follow our heart and our own inclinations we will find the small things that we can do to create a sustainable future and a healthy environment. ~ John Denver

The secret of success is concentrating interest in life, interest in sports and good times, interest in your studies, interest in your fellow students, interest in the small things of nature, insects, birds, flowers, leaves, etc. In other words to be fully awake to everything about you & the more you learn the more you can appreciate & get a full measure of joy & happiness out of life. ~ LeRoy Pollock

Practice giving things away, not just things you don't care about, but things you do like. Remember, it is not the size of a gift, it is its quality and the amount of mental attachment you overcome that count. So don't bankrupt yourself on a momentary positive impulse, only to regret it later. Give thought to giving. Give small things, carefully, and observe the mental processes going along with the act of releasing the little thing you liked. (53)
(Quote is actually Robert A F Thurman but Huston Smith, who only wrote the introduction to my edition, seems to be given full credit for this text.) ~ Huston Smith

The small things in life are sometimes the most precious gifts we are given, and when you recognize them when they arrive, then you are truly blessed. ~ Raine Miller

It's the small things people do for others that define the largest parts of them. ~ Colleen Hoover

But very small things could be a big deal within the very small orbits on which they spin. ~ Shanthi Sekaran

Sometimes one had to be grateful for the small things. ~ Brenda Novak

In the small things is the genetic imprint of the larger things... You must reverse the small things as well as the larger things. You must learn to see not just with your eyes but with your heart and intelligence. ~ Witi Ihimaera

You had to appreciate the small things in life when the big things made you want to curl up in the corner in the fetal position and give up. ~ Mia Sheridan

I like the idea of songs sung by those without big voices. You know, small birdsongs that rise above the noise of the city. ~ Kyo Maclear

Sometimes we have to focus on the small things to realise miracles do happen. ~ Jenni Boyd

I find that the more willing I am to be grateful for the small things in life, the bigger stuff just seems to show up from unexpected sources, and I am constantly looking forward to each day with all the surprises that keep coming my way! ~ Louise Hay

I do not know why the mind chooses these small things to break itself on. ~ Chris Cleave

I try to look after the really small things and the really big things, and delegate the stuff in between, ~ Graydon Carter

Grief doesn't know time. It comes and goes as it pleases, then small things taunt it back into your life. The memories haunt you forever and carry the grief with them. (Possessive) ~ Willow Winters

I enjoy the small things in life. Like my penis. ~ Jarod Kintz

Let's not allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. Remember "Life is too short to be little". ~ Dale Carnegie

I had, over the years, collected things, small things, as people do, and I had put them all together and showed them in what became a building in the form of the Geometric Mouse. ~ Claes Oldenburg

The audacity is in the living, not in the choosing. You are fearless enough to keep breathing; in the face of loss and pain and humility and gratitude and gifts and brilliance and confusion. This is the amazing thing. Right or wrong can never be anything but small things in the face of your gigantic, intrepid spirit ~ Jeanette LeBlanc

Being famous is such a gift for me because small things make people's lives brighter. You just shake somebody's hand. You just smile and write your name and people will talk about it for the rest of their lives. ~ Will Smith

A life of value is not a series of great things well done; it is a series of small things consciously done. ~ Joan D. Chittister

I can do small things in a great way. ~ James Freeman Clarke

Even if you've never experienced the wonderful things in life, only after something has been contaminated and marred will it become a beautiful thing. Pain can be healed with gentle care, darkness can be removed with sunlight. Don't underestimate the small things. Everything is significant. ~ Natsuki Takaya