Logo - Feel The Words

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.

Photography is a small voice, at best, but sometimes one photograph, or a group of them, can lure our sense of awareness.

Quotes by W. Eugene Smith

I was brought up largely by my grandfather because my father only returned from a prisoner-of-war camp in 1947 and worked in the nearest small town, so I hardly ever saw him.

Quotes by W. G. Sebald

The close of my studies with a degree of a Dr. Ing. in 1929 coincided with the great economic crisis, and I was not able to find an academic position. I was therefore very grateful for a position in the...

Quotes by Vladimir Prelog

The arts have only ever interested a small minority of people, which acted as a kind of nursery to support artists.

Quotes by Vivienne Westwood

Antigua has 365 beaches, one for each day of the year, which I think is rather unique for such a small island.

Quotes by Viv Richards

When I was very small, maybe 8 years old, we had a big radio that stood on four legs, and it had a cross piece underneath it, and I used to take a pillow and crawl under the radio.

Quotes by Vin Scully

Of course, you have to think of the audience. You cannot make an obtuse film that only appeals to a small niche section of the audience.

Quotes by Vikramaditya Motwane

My parents were ordinary people; we lived in a small apartment.

Quotes by Viktor Vekselberg

In England, David and I are big fish in a small pond. But in L.A., we are tiny, tiny, tiny fish in a big pond.

Quotes by Victoria Beckham

The advertising market in China is big and is still growing at a considerable pace. While online video is emerging as a mainstream advertising solution, it still represents a relatively small portion of advertising budget in China.

Quotes by Victor Koo

Americans spend more money on Botox, face lifts and tummy tucks than on the age-old scourges of polio, small pox and malaria.

Quotes by Victor Davis Hanson

Change will not come from above, it will come from below, from the small and medium size businesspeople. They do dare to show their faces. They applaud us and help us financially.

Quotes by Vicente Fox

Even the largest avalanche is triggered by small things.

Quotes by Vernor Vinge

In Men in Black, it was a very small character, no pun intended.

Quotes by Verne Troyer

I love small films, and I love films being seen in a theater. I love film, and unfortunately, that's being phased out.

Quotes by Valerie Faris

When I was outed on July 14th, 2003, I was, until that moment, covert. That means no one outside of a very small circle knew where I really worked.

Quotes by Valerie Plame

I grew up in a very small town in Massachusetts, and it goes without saying that there weren't many Nigerian families in that town, and a lot of people couldn't say Uzoamaka.

Quotes by Uzo Aduba

I come from the small town of Sialkot in Pakistan. During pre-Partition, this town had the highest literacy rate among women.

Quotes by Umera Ahmad

Large skepticism leads to large understanding. Small skepticism leads to small understanding. No skepticism leads to no understanding.

Quotes by Unknown

Coming from a small town of Mexico, Missouri, we got 11,000 people. Never seen a celebrity.

Quotes by Tyronn Lue

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.