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There is no act, however trivial, but has its train of consequences.
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“There is no act, however trivial, but has its train of consequences.”

Samuel Smiles

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1871
Meaning

Meaning of “There is no act, however trivial, but has…”

Small actions matter because repetition creates habits and consequences that can accumulate long after a single choice seemed insignificant.

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Where does it come from?

Character, Chapter I, “Influence of Character,” Project Gutenberg #2541. The sentence follows Smiles’s claim that character is formed through minute circumstances and daily discipline, emphasizing that even apparently trivial acts carry consequences.

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Change and GrowthDecisionGrowthHabitsLifeLife AdviceLife LessonsResponsibilityShortWisdom Quotes About Judgment & Living WellCharacter
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Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds
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“Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds”

George Eliot · Adam Bede · 1859
Voice: Narrator voice · Narrator
Meaning & context

The narrator presents character and action as reciprocal: choices express who a person is, while repeated actions also reshape the person who makes them.

Source details

Adam Bede; narrator’s reflection during the novel’s moral development, represented from Project Gutenberg #507.

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To have faults and not to reform them,—this, indeed, should be pronounced having faults.
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“To have faults and not to reform them,—this, indeed, should be pronounced having faults.”

Confucius · The Analects of Confucius · James Legge translation
Meaning & context

Making an error is less serious than refusing to correct it after the problem has become visible.

Source details

The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book XV distinguishes ordinary faults from the refusal to reform them.

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The education of character is very much a question of models.
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“The education of character is very much a question of models.”

Samuel Smiles · Self-Help · 1859
Meaning & context

People absorb conduct from examples around them, so lived models can teach more powerfully than rules that are contradicted by behavior.

Source details

Self-Help, Chapter XII, “Example—Models,” Project Gutenberg #935. Smiles argues that character education depends heavily on models because people unconsciously mould themselves after the characters, manners, habits and opinions around them.

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It is reflection which forms habits, and fixes principles indelibly on the heart.
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“It is reflection which forms habits, and fixes principles indelibly on the heart.”

Mary Wollstonecraft · Thoughts on the Education of Daughters · 1787
Meaning & context

Habit formation becomes stronger when action is joined with reflection, because principles understood and revisited are more likely to guide later choices.

Source details

Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787), “THE BENEFITS WHICH ARISE FROM DISAPPOINTMENTS,” printed page 111, Project Gutenberg #67466. Wollstonecraft says reflection forms habits and fixes principles while opening a religious-moral discussion of disappointment, self-examination and character.

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The best way of training the young is to train yourself at the same time; not to admonish them, but to be always carrying out your own admonitions in practice.
Image design Botanical Sage
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“The best way of training the young is to train yourself at the same time; not to admonish them, but to be always carrying out your own admonitions in practice.”

Plato · Laws · 4th century BCE
Voice: Dialogue speaker · Athenian Stranger
Meaning & context

The Athenian Stranger argues that adults teach ethical habits through consistent conduct as much as through instruction. Within the proposed city’s civic code, self-discipline and example help to shape a life shared across generations; this is not a randomized modern study of parenting.

Source details

Plato, Laws, Book V, the Athenian Stranger giving an extended civic-ethical exhortation to Cleinias and Megillus; Benjamin Jowett English, Gutenberg #1750. This is dialogue speech, not commentary in Jowett’s introduction. The local dramatic voice is the Athenian Stranger, not Socrates or Plato personally.

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