LITTLE HINGS ARE NOT LITTLE

 

LITTLE HINGS ARE NOT LITTLE

            The English playwright Ben Jonson  (1572-1637) says in his poem The Noble Nature :

            It is not growing like a tree

            In bulk, doth make man better be,

            Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,

            To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sear:

                        A lily of a day

                        Is fairer far in May,

            Although it fall and die that night,---

            It was the plant and flower of Light.

In small proportions we just beauties see,

And in short measures life may perfect be.

           

             The central idea of the poem is that quality is more important than quantity. A small  rose is prettier than a big tree with so many branches attached. And a little sparrow flying upward towards the sky is lovelier than a huge elephant standing idle.

 

               Look at a mosquito. Its life is short but active. Moreover, it is musical. It gives out an alarming sound before it stings you.

 

               Look at the following quotes:

 

*He that despiseth small things, shall fall by little and little.---Ecclesiasticus, Hebrew Biblical saying.

 

**Most of the critical things in life, which become the starting points of human destiny, are little things.---R. Smith, English clergy (1818-95).

 

***The power of little things has so often been noted that we accept it as an axiom, and yet fail to see, in each beginning, the possibility of great events.---Anonymous.

 

****Do little things now; so shall big things come to thee by and by asking to be done. ----Persian Proverb.

 

*****Little things are great to little men.-----Oliver Goldsmith , Irish  poet, dramatist, and novelist (1728-74).

              

            Finally, this meaningful quote: Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.

 

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

16 October 2025