I cannot tell what changes this new art is to go through, or to what greatness or littleness of fortune; but I can imagine little stories in prose with their dialogues in metre going pleasantly to the strings.
Never, surely, was a more complete exposure of the insufficiency of worldly glory to constitute happiness, and never a more impressive exhibition of the littleness of vanity.
I was going to say what a pity it is that that man should have so much littleness of vanity; but I should have uttered a very foolish sentiment if I had!
Because, if he had not so much littleness perhaps he would not be so great: what but vanity makes a man write and speak, and slave, and become famous?
And that by magnitude great things become great, and greater things, greater; and by littleness less things become less?
Socrates, however, argues that contraries cannot exist in the same thing at the same time, as, for example, the same object cannot partake of both magnitude and littleness at the same time.
Thus, then, Simmias has the appellation of being both little and great, being between both, by exceeding the littleness of one through his own magnitude, and to the other yielding a magnitude that exceeds his own littleness.
The vastness of St. Peter's itself is best felt in looking down upon the interior from the gallery that surrounds the inside of the dome, and in comparing one's own littleness with the greatness of all the neighboring mosaics.
Leaving to great and lofty minds the beautiful books which I cannot understand, still less put in practice, I rejoice in my littleness because "only little children and those who are like them shall be admitted to the Heavenly banquet.
Greatness and littleness are terms merely comparative; and we err in our estimation of things, because we measure them by some wrong standard.
The stern, uncouth forms at rest on the crags below, and dwarfed by the giant size of the Matter that reigned around them, impressed him with the might of Nature and the littleness of Man.
In the execution of this commission he displayed a conduct worthy the littleness of his genius and the criminality of his mind.
It is sufficient to say paradoxically, that in the magnitude of its littleness it cringed, it intrigued, and sought protection in corruption.
The greatness of Carthage had been, undoubtedly, the cause of that littleness of feeling which had been manifested towards it by Cato, who could not bear the idea that there should exist a city rivalling in grandeur the place he inhabited.
And this, the chronicle concludes, shows the greatness and majesty of empires, and the littleness of the vanquished.
In the old chronicles you read of earthquakes and pestilences, and are told that these showed the power and majesty of God and the littleness of Man.
But never did the littleness of man, and the vanity of his very best virtues, of patriotism to exalt, and of valour to defend his country appear more conspicuous than in the record of what Athens was, and the certainty of what she now is.
To be pitied for littleness or meanness; miserable; paltry; contemptible; despicable.
The other class, men little by position, are often so hedged about with difficulties, so neglected, that they cannot change their condition; they bequeath also their littleness to their children.
If a man is in error he will be grateful to one that tells him so; will learn most from men who make him ashamed of his littleness of life.
It shows, however, that relative littleness is essential to that first kind of beauty.
From infancy I had always a feeling of littlenessand humility.
With what great and certain hopes hast thou inspired us, us who should have known nothing but despair: and to what glory hast thou in thy Son called our littleness and nothingness!
The littleness of the national character, its self-conceit, and its formality, are further instances of an effete civilization.
But the dirty shell of his toil did upholster him a little, and he emerges from it gaunter, and horribly squeezed within the littleness of a torturing jacket.
When I lag behind because of my littleness my aunt turns round, on the edge of the footpath, and holds out her arms, and I run to her, and she stoops as I come and calls me by my name.
And we, we are all alike, in spite of our different minds; alike in the greatness of our common interests and even in the littleness of our personal aims.
The by-roads are pricked out with trees, which follow each other artlessly and divide the infantile littleness of orchards.
Half measures are laughter-provoking in their unbounded littleness when it is a question for the last time of arresting the world's roll down the hill of horror.
For a second the anguish and the effort stopped my heart and in a nightmare I saw the cadaverous littlenessof my grave closing over me.
Her littleness embraces that immensity, because it is all a part of Order.
When a gun has fired short, we see more clearly the littleness of each shot.
He was disgusted with the littleness of the agents and springs of political life--he had formed a weary contempt for the barrenness of literary reputation.
What shall we say of the cunning cat-like Charles Greville, who crept on tiptoe through the world, observing and recording the littleness of men?
My point is to prove that littleness must be conquered before a man can be great or good.
