The Master said, “The gentleman understands what is right, whereas the petty man understands profit. ” (Analects 4. 16)
But they were as different as fire and ice. Robert Kennedy thought Eugene McCarthy was pompous, petty, and venal. McCarthy thought Kennedy was a spoiled, unintelligent demagogue.
There would be very little to dislike in other people if we refused to bring to them all of our own judgements and petty grievances.
A man does not have himself killed for a half-pence a day or for a petty distinction. You must speak to the soul in order to electrify him
I'm barely prolific and incredibly lazy.
Everybody in the world has to compromise. I don't know one person that gets everything they want, so the politicians are going to have to figure that out and stop pointing out, "He shook hands with a Democrat in 1989. He ate with a Republican last week. " It's petty high school, even junior high stuff going on. It's junior high politics going on, so it's a shame.
One age misunderstands another; and a petty age misunderstands all the others in its own ugly way.
You belong somewhere you feel free.
I haven't a particle of confidence in a man who has no redeeming petty vices whatsoever.
I have found it very important in my own life to try to let go of my wishes and instead to live in hope. I am finding that when I choose to let go of my sometimes petty and superficial wishes and trust that my life is precious and meaningful in the eyes of God something really new, something beyond my own expectations begins to happen for me. (Finding My Way Home)
Be reflective. . . and stay away from the theater as much as you can. Stay out of the theatrical world, out of its petty interests, its inbreeding tendencies, its stifling atmosphere, its corroding influence. Once become
I don't want to be a politician. I don't like politics. It's petty; it fights dirty.
If you have only been around people who use power in cruel and petty ways, then when you hear the very word, you may have a negative reaction.
I have very little respect for Nancy Reagan. There is something about her that is very petty.
My patriotism is of the kind which is outraged by the notion that the United States never was a great nation until in a petty three months' campaign it knocked to pieces a poor, decrepit, bankrupt old state like Spain. To hold such an opinion as that is to abandon all American standards, to put shame and scorn on all that our ancestors tried to build up here, and to go over to the standards of which Spain is a representative.
How sweet the morning air is!. . . How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature!
What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
I think it's odd that grown-ups quarrel so easily and so often and about such petty matters. Up to now I always thought bickering was just something children did and that they outgrew it.
Your radiance shines in every atom of creation yet our petty desires keep it hidden.