There is sometimes a greater judgement shewn in deviating from the rules of art, than in adhering to them; and†there ismore beauty inthe works of a great genius who is ignorant of all the rules of art, than in the works of a little genius, who not only knows but scrupulously observes them.

-Addison,Joseph
  In The Spectator, no.592,10 Sep.

I looked out for what the metropolitan reviewers would have to say. They seemed to fall into two classes: those who had little to say and those who had nothing.

-Beerbohm, Sir (Henry) Max(imilian)
  Seven Men,'Enoch Soames'.

Better is little with the fear of the L than great treasure and trouble therewith. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.

-Bible (Old Testament)
ORDProverbs15:16^17.

For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Isaiah 28:10^11.

I'll tell thee everything I can: There's little to relate. I saw an aged, aged man, A-sitting on a gate.

-Dodgson
Through the Looking-Glass, ch.8,'It's My Own Invention'.

   Poor Little Rich Girl. 239

-Coward, Sir Noe«  l Peirce
  Title of song.

It has long beenanaxiomof minethatthe littlethings are infinitely the most important.

-Doyle, SirArthur Conan
  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,'A Case of Identity'.

I never lost a little fish.Yes, I am free to say. It always was the biggest fish I caught that got away.

-Field, Eugene
Attributed.

But we, how shall we turn to little things And listen to the birds and winds and streams Made holy by their dreams, Nor feel the heart-break in the heart of things?

-Gibson,Wilfred Wilson
  'Lament'.

Dies Osterreich ist eine kleineWelt, In der die groÞe ihre Probe h a« lt. Austria is a little world in which the big one holds its tryouts.

-Heat-Moon,William Least originally  WilliamTrogdon
On the social and political disintegration affecting the  Austro- Hungarian Empire in the late1890s. Quoted in Heinrich Benedikt (ed) Geschichte der Republik Oesterreich (1954).

We don't pay taxes.Only the little people pay taxes.

-Helmsley, Leona (Mindy) ne¤  e Rosenthal
  Remark to a former hotel housekeeper which became a byword of her trial and conviction for tax fraud. Reported in the NewYork Times,13  Jul.

Look at little Johnny there, Little Johnny Head-in-Air!

-Hoffmann, Heinrich
  Struwwelpeter,'Johnny Head-in- Air'.

Man wants but little drink below, But wants that little strong.

-Holmes, Oliver Wendell
  'A Song of Other Days'.

   Little minds are interested in the extraordinary; great minds in the commonplace.

-Hubbard, Elbert Green
Thousand and One Epigrams.

   It iswonderful, when a calculation ismade, how littlethe mind is actually employed in the discharge of any profession.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
  Remark, 6  Apr. Collected in  James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol.2.

He knows so little and accomplishes so much.

-McFarlane, Robert 'Bud' Carl
Of President Reagan. Quoted in George P Shultz Turmoil and Triumph (1993).

There is our little bungalow down there.

-Reagan, Ronald Wilson
  On viewing theWhite House from a helicopter the day he left office. Quoted in theWashington Post, 22 Apr1991.

A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation.

-Saki pseudonym of  Hector Hugh Munro
The Square Egg,'Clovis on theAlleged Romance of Business' (published1924).

The sovereign'st thing that any man may have Is little to say, and much to hear and see.

-Skelton,John
  The Bouge of Court, l. 211.

Here is all straight and narrow as a tomb Oh shut me not within a little room.

-Smith, Stevie (Florence Margaret)
  Harold's Leap,'The Commuted Sentence'.