Petty Quotes

Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.
George Carlin

Pet, Sweat, Sweaty

I've found men are less likely to let petty things annoy them.
Marilyn Monroe

Men, Less, Found

Remember, always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you. But those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.
Richard M. Nixon

Best, Hate, Yourself

The petty man is eager to make boasts, yet desires that others should believe in him. He enthusiastically engages in deception, yet wants others to have affection for him. He conducts himself like an animal, yet wants others to think well of him.
Xun Zi

Him, Others, Deception

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
Aesop

Great, Public, Office

Poverty entails fear and stress and sometimes depression. It meets a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts that is something on which to pride yourself but poverty itself is romanticized by fools.
J. K. Rowling

Fear, Yourself, Depression

The world perishes not from bandits and fires, but from hatred, hostility, and all these petty squabbles.
Anton Chekhov

Hatred, Hostility, Fires

My father was raised with brothers, he was a football player and a boxer, he was a chief petty officer in the Navy, he was a man of his times.
Hillary Clinton

Father, Football, Times

Deceit is the game of petty spirits, and that is by nature a woman's quality.
Pierre Corneille

Nature, Woman, Game

It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.
W. Somerset Maugham

Happiness, Men, Character

A winner rebukes and forgives; a loser is too timid to rebuke and too petty to forgive.
Sydney J. Harris

Loser, Forgive, Winner

Hunger, revenge, to sleep are petty foes, But only death the jealous eyes can close.
William Wycherley

Death, Sleep, Revenge

It is better to lose everything you have to keep the balance of justice level, than to live a life of petty privilege devoid of true freedom.
Bryant H. McGill

Life, Freedom, Live

Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious.
Zhuangzi

Great, Wisdom, Generous

A family on the throne is an interesting idea. It brings down the pride of sovereignty to the level of petty life.
Walter Bagehot

Life, Family, Down

If there is one realm in which it is essential to be sublime, it is in wickedness. You spit on a petty thief, but you can't deny a kind of respect for the great criminal.
Denis Diderot

Great, Respect, Thief

In a republic, that paradise of debility, the politician is a petty tyrant who obeys the laws.
Emile M. Cioran

Laws, Politician, Paradise

I get so tired listening to one million dollars here, one million dollars there, it's so petty.
Imelda Marcos

Tired, Here, Listening

Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous.
Zhuang Zi

Great, Wisdom, Small

Whether the gentleman is capable or not, he is loved all the same; conversely the petty man is loathed all the same.
Xun Zi

Same, Loved, Whether

A petty reason perhaps why novelists more and more try to keep a distance from journalists is that novelists are trying to write the truth and journalists are trying to write fiction.
Graham Greene

Truth, Trying, Why

There are successful scholars, public-spirited scholars, upright scholars, cautious scholars, and those who are merely petty men.
Xun Zi

Men, Successful, Cautious

Every man may reign secure in his petty tyranny, and spread terror and desolation around him, until the trump of the Archangel shall excite different emotions in his soul.
James Otis

May, Him, Different

Don't be afraid of failure; be afraid of petty success.
Maude Adams

Success, Failure, Afraid

At its best, entertainment is going to be a subjective thing that can't win for everyone, while at worst, a particular game just becomes a random symbol for petty tribal behavior.
John Carmack

Best, Game, Win

If I would go up on a high note, Eddie would want a low one. That's how petty the situation had become.
Sammy Hagar

Become, High, Situation

We're not going to pay attention to the silliness and the petty comments. And quite frankly, women have joined me in this effort, and so it's not about appearances. It's about effectiveness.
Katherine Harris

Women, Effort, Attention

Petty things don't bother me as much as they used to.
Rebecca Lobo

If you look at things that really affect people's lives - sport, the arts, charities - they were always at the back of the queue for government money - health, social security, defence, pensions were all way ahead. And each of those areas - sports, the arts, the lottery - got relatively petty cash from the government.
John Major

Health, Money, Government

What have we achieved since the end of the Second World War? We have allowed petty, bourgeois regimes in which everything is average, mediocre.
Tahar Ben Jelloun

War, End, Everything

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