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Small Quotes

Big ideas about being underestimated.

Several of these small quotes come from people describing being dismissed early — a company written off as minor before it grew, a hometown that never gets credited. If scale itself interests you more, the Big collection makes the opposite case.

With every little bit of change we make in our lives, we can maximize that small change simply by asking ourselves: 'What's next? What can I do now? What additional responsibility can I take on?'

Quotes by Yehuda Berg

It's enough to make a small shift within and a small action in the world. Collectively these have a huge effect.

Quotes by Yehuda Berg

The United States lived on borrowed money for too long, inflating its financial sector unnecessarily and neglecting its small and mid-sized industrial companies.

Quotes by Wolfgang Schauble

The food here is terrible, and the portions are too small.

Quotes by Woody Allen

I speak at a lot of banquets in small towns, because small towns have so many great people.

Quotes by Woody Hayes

All imperfection is easier to tolerate if served up in small doses.

Quotes by Wislawa Szymborska

Sometimes we make progress in leaps. And sometimes we make them in small steps.

Quotes by Wilson Cruz

The mastery of the turn is the story of how aviation became practical as a means of transportation. It is the story of how the world became small.

Quotes by William Langewiesche

Franchises and chains have come to dominate small communities, but those same chains have eliminated a lot of the greasy spoons, places you didn't want to eat in the first place.

Quotes by William Least Heat-Moon

It is the still, small voice that the soul heeds, not the deafening blasts of doom.

Quotes by William Dean Howells

Turkeys, quails, and small birds, are here to be seen; but birds are not numerous in desart forests; they draw near to the habitations of men, as I have constantly observed in all my travels.

Quotes by William Bartram

Those that don't believe how small my work is should just come along and see it for themselves.

Quotes by Willard Wigan

My track record suggests that I'm not quite a mainstream darling, that's for sure. I don't want to only cater to a small audience, but it's just kind of worked out that way.

Quotes by Will Forte

Small towns are the worst for getting recognised.

Quotes by Wayne Knight

A 'Friends' shoot night could extend well into the small hours of the morning.

Quotes by Warren Littlefield

During one or two summers, as well as part-time during the school year, I worked for a small Canadian company which developed electrical instruments for military planes.

Quotes by Walter Kohn

I write in a small office at home.

Quotes by Walter Dean Myers

There's always a mismatch between small entrepreneurial outfits and large companies, which often don't have the same outlook.

Quotes by Walt Mossberg

How the snow falls in the north! Flake on flake falling incessantly, until the small dingles are almost on a level with the uplands. It throws itself on the leaves of autumn, and holds them down in security from the...

Quotes by W. H. Davies

Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake.

Quotes by W. C. Fields

Frequently Asked Questions

Do these quotes only talk about small in terms of size?
Not at all — "small" here ranges from company size to towns to personal ambition. One speaker even once thought a company was "a small company ripping off our copyrights," before it turned out to be a much bigger deal than expected. For more on how scale plays out in the working world, see Business quotes.
What do these quotes say about small towns?
One is blunt about it: "Small towns are the worst for getting recognised." It's a candid take on how a smaller community can limit visibility or opportunity, at least in this speaker's experience.
Is being small always seen negatively in these quotes?
No — one turns it into something aspirational: "I want to be in the small percentage of women who don't settle for conventional roles." Here, "small" describes an exclusive, admirable group rather than a limitation. If you'd rather explore the opposite end of scale, Big quotes covers bigger ambitions too.
How does this collection compare small and great?
One quote draws a direct contrast: "Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous." It suggests smallness here is linked to pettiness, while greatness is linked to generosity of spirit. Explore that idea further in Great quotes.
Is there a common thread tying these small quotes together?
Mostly that "small" is relative here — it can mean underestimated, limiting, exclusive, or even petty depending on context, and these four quotes touch on nearly every version of that. For more everyday words examined from every angle, check out Always quotes.

Others use the word to describe standing apart from convention rather than physical size, and one older line frames small speech as narrow-minded rather than short. Compare with Great quotes or Business quotes for related angles.