"Man loves what is small; and he loves what is big, through the same weakness."

Joseph Joubert Literature See all quotes by Joseph Joubert →

React to this quote

More by Joseph Joubert

See all

“All these philosophers are no more than surgeons.”

“Fortunately, when he lacks reason he also lacks words.”

“In such times, if you want neither to lie nor to wound, you are reduced to being silent.”

“Stars more beautiful to the eyes than the telescope that robs them of their illusions.”

“The punishment of those who have loved women too much is to love them forever.”

“Of what must be said and what must not be said. The importance of knowing.”

Resonant Thoughts

"The American, if he has a spark of national feeling, will be humiliated by the very prospect of a foreigner's visit to Congress — these, for the most part, illiterate hacks whose fancy vests are spott…"

— Mary McCarthy

Literature1912–1989

#love

"If you take as your pattern the wings of feathered birds, these are more powerful in structure of bone and sinew because they are penetrable, that is to say the feathers are separated from one another…"

— Leonardo da Vinci

Mathematics1452–1519

#power

"Psychotherapists … are dealing with people whose distress arises from what may be termed maya, to use the Hindu-Buddhist word whose exact meaning is not merely 'illusion' but the entire world-concepti…"

— Alan Watts

Philosophy1915–1973

#society