As sure as ever God puts His children in the furnace, He will be in the furnace with them.
Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of; they just turn up some of the ill weeds on to the surface.
TRIFLES
Seeks painted trifles and fantastic toys,
And eagerly pursues imaginary joys.
This is a gimcrack
That can get nothing but new fashions on you.
Little drops of water, little grains of sand
Make the mighty ocean, and the pleasant land « Julia Fletcher Carney—Little Things.
Little deeds of kindness, little words of love.
Help to make earth happy, like the heaven above.
Changed by later compilers to "make this
earth an Eden."
Julia Fletcher Carney—Little Things.
He that contemneth small things shall fall
by little and little.
Ecclesiaslicus. XIX. 1.
He that despiseth small things will perish
by little and little.
Emerson—Prudence.
Small things are best:
Grief and unrest
To rank and wealth are given;
But little things
On little wings
Bear little souls to Heaven.
Rev. F. W. Faber—Written in a Little Lady's
Little Album.
Das kleinste Haar wirft seinen Schatten.
The smallest hair throws its shadow.
Goethe—Spruche in Prosa. III.
These little things are great to little man.
| author = Goldsmith
| work = The Traveller. L. 42.
Coups d'epingle.
Policy of pin pricks.
L. M. de la Haye—Vicomte de Cormenin.
Des coups d'epee. . . Mais pas de coups
d'epingle.
A stroke of the sword . . . but not a pin prick.
Daudet—Tartarin de Tarascon. Part of title
of Ch. XI. Phrase at end of chapter.
J'aime a rever, mais ne veux pas
Qu'a coups d'epingle on me reveille.
I love to dream, but do not wish
To have a pin prick rouse me.
As used by Jacques Delille—La Conversation, earlier than Daudet.
Ce ne sont jamais les coups d'epingle qui decident
de la fortune des Etats.
It is never the pin pricks which decide the fortune of states.
De Vergennes—Letter to D'AngiviUer. Aug.
11, 1777.
w
| seealso = (See also {{sc|Napoleon)
Has nugae seria ducent
In mala.
These trifles will lead to serious mischief.
Horace—Ars Poetica. 451.
For precept must be upon precept, precept
upon precept; line ujxm line, line upon line; here
a little, and there a little.
XXVIII. 10.
A little one shall become a thousand, and a
small one a strong nation.
Isaiah. LX. 22.
Atque utinam his potius nugis tpta ilia dedisset
Tempora sayvitia?.
Would to heaven he had given up to
trifles like these all the time which he devoted
to cruelty.
Juvenal—Satires. IV. 150.
Ex parvis saype magnarum momenta rerum
pendent.
Events of great consequence often spring
from trifling circumstances.
LrvY—Annates. XXVII. 9.
The soft droppes of raine perce the hard
Marble, many strokes overthrow the tallest Oke.
| author = Lyly
| work = Euphues. Arber's reprint. P. 81.
(1579)
| topic =
| page = 815
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>They made light of it.
Matthew. XXII. 5.
It was possible to live under the regulations
established by Sir George [Cockburn], but now
we are tortured to death by pin-point wounds.
Napoleon according to Lady Malcolm—
Diary of St. Helena.
For the maintenance of peace, nations should
avoid the pin-pricks which forerun cannon-shots.
Napoleon to the Czar Alexander. At
Tilsit, June 22, 1807.
22
| seealso = (See also {{sc|Haye)
De multis grandis acervus erit.
Out of many things a great heap will be formed.
Ovid—Rernedia Amoris. 424.
Peu de chose nous console, parceque peu de
chose nous afflige.
A little thing comforts us because a little
thing afflicts us.
Pascal—Pensées. VI. '25.
At every trifle scorn to take offence;
That always shows great pride or little sense.
| author = Pope
| work = Essay on Criticism. L. 386.
