“Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.”
Proverbs, c. 700 BC · Hebrew wisdom literature
Chapter 4
On Small Disciplines
“If you add only a little to a little and do this often, soon that little will become great.”
Hesiod, c. 700 BC · Greek farmer poet of Boeotia
“A drop of water hollows the stone, a ring is worn away by use.”
Ovid, c. 15 AD · Roman poet, writing from exile on the Black Sea
“Let no man think lightly of good, saying in his heart, It will not come nigh unto me. Even by the falling of water-drops a water-pot is filled.”
The Dhammapada, c. 300 BC · early Buddhist verse collection
“The tree which fills the arms grew from the tiniest sprout; the tower of nine storeys rose from a small heap of earth; the journey of a thousand li commenced with a single step.”
Laozi, c. 400 BC · Chinese sage, founder of the Taoist tradition
“Little by little a fly eats a dog's ear.”
Ga proverb, 1865 · traditional saying of the Accra coast
“Order. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.”
Benjamin Franklin, 1791 · American printer, listing his thirteen virtues
Across ninety four studies of people chasing goals, those who wrote down in advance exactly when, where and how they would act were markedly more likely to follow through than those who only intended to.
Peter Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran, 2006 · psychologists, New York University and University of Sheffield
“Work is wholesome, and there is plenty for everyone. It keeps us from ennui and mischief, is good for health and spirits.”
Louisa May Alcott, 1868 · American novelist, in the voice of Marmee March
“Nothing ever comes to me, that is worth having, except as the result of hard work.”
Booker T. Washington, 1901 · American educator, founder of Tuskegee
Asked what they had learned, more than fifteen hundred Americans in their seventies, eighties and nineties returned again and again to the same regret: the hours they had lost to worrying, which action would have spent better.
Karl Pillemer, 2011 · gerontologist, Cornell Legacy Project
“The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts.”
George Eliot, 1872 · English novelist, born Mary Ann Evans
Free to read, always. Liking a verse or leaving a comment happens in the app, so the conversation has a name attached to it.