KANAE
197Japanese quotation 名言

積小為大

Sekishō idai

“Accumulating the small builds the great.”

Attributed to Ninomiya Sontoku · Edo

The meaning

Great works cannot be decreed: they are assembled, piece by piece, from gestures anyone can do. To neglect the small is to renounce the great.

At the origin

The central teaching of Ninomiya Sontoku (1787-1856), a peasant turned agricultural reformer, whose statue stands in Japanese schools.

The characters

  1. 積小 sekishōamassing the small
  2. 為大

The complete word-by-word reading, in KANAE.

In practice

Reduce your great ambition to its smallest daily unit, and honor it.

Themes

In the collections · Ikigai

Similar proverbs

  1. 127 The large holds the small.
  2. 005 Even dust, piling up, becomes a mountain.
  3. 081 Act, and it will be done; do not act, and it will not — in all things.
  4. 004 Continuity is strength.
  5. 123 Trade is like an ox's drool.

Related expressions

  1. 021 Gold coins to a cat.
  2. 217 First winter rain — the monkey too seems to wish for a little straw coat.
  3. 017 The frog at the bottom of the well knows nothing of the great ocean.
  4. 080 Great vessels take long to complete.

See also