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There Are Thousands Willing To Do Great Things For One Willing To Do A Small Thing.
-George MacDonald
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There Are Thousands Willing

George MacDonald
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There Are Thousands Willing To Do Great Things For One Willing To Do A Small Thing.

Understanding the Quote: "there are thousands willing to do great things for one willing to..."

This quote by George MacDonald reflects deeply on the theme of literature. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Literature, Great Things, Willing, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how George MacDonald interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About George MacDonald

George MacDonald is celebrated for insightful thoughts on literature and great things. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Literature
Great Things
Willing
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When A Feeling Was There, They Felt As If It Would Never Go; When It Was Gone, They Felt As If It Had Never Been; When It Returned, They Felt As If It Had Never Gone.
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Oh The Folly Of Any Mind That Would Explain God Before Obeying Him! That Would Map Out The Character Of God Instead Of Crying, Lord, What Wouldst Thou Have Me To Do?
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There Is No Strength In Unbelief. Even The Unbelief Of What Is False Is No Source Of Might. It Is The Truth Shining From Behind That Gives The Strength To Disbelieve.
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I've Been Thinking About It A Great Deal, And It Seems To Me That Although Any One Sixpence Is As Good As Any Other Sixpence, Not Twenty Lambs Would Do Instead Of One Sheep Whose Face You Knew. Somehow, When Once You've Looked Into Anybody's Eyes, Right Deep Down Into Them, I Mean, Nobody Will Do For That One Any More . Nobody, Ever So Beautiful Or So Good, Will Make Up For That One Going Out Of Sight.
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Men
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Now I Want You To Think That In Life Troubles Will Come, Which Seem As If They Never Would Pass Away. The Night And Storm Look As If They Would Last Forever; But The Calm And The Morning Cannot Be Stayed; The Storm In Its Very Nature Is Transient. The Effort Of Nature, As That Of The Human Heart, Ever Is To Return To Its Repose, For God Is Peace.
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It Needs Brains To Be A Real Fool.
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Brain
Needs
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Doe
Politics
Whose Work Is It But Your Own To Open Your Eyes? But Indeed The Business Of The Universe Is To Make Such A Fool Out Of You That You Will Know Yourself For One, And Begin To Be Wise.
Wise
Eye
Fool
Yet I Know That Good Is Coming To Me—that Good Is Always Coming; Though Few Have At All Times The Simplicity And The Courage To Believe It. What We Call Evil, Is The Only And Best Shape, Which, For The Person And His Condition At The Time, Could Be Assumed By The Best Good. And So, Farewell.
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Farewell
Evil
A Condition Which Of Declension Would Indicate A Devil, May Of Growth Indicate A Saint.
Growth
Devil
Saint
To Be Kind Neither Hurts Nor Compromises.
Hurt
Be Kind
Compromise
Primarily, God Is Not Bound To Punish Sin; He Is Bound To Destroy Sin. The Only Vengeance Worth Having On Sin Is To Make The Sinner Himself Its Executioner.
Vengeance
Sin
Executioners
You Must Learn To Be Strong In The Dark As Well As In The Day, Else You Will Always Be Only Half Brave.
Strength
Being Strong
Courage
Truth Is Truth, Whether From The Lips Of Jesus Or Balaam.
Jesus
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Truth Is
Age Is Not All Decay; It Is The Ripening, The Swelling, Of The Fresh Life Within, That Withers And Bursts The Husk.
Reality
Age
Decay
Ah, What Is It We Send Up Thither, Where Our Thoughts Are Either A Dissonance Or A Sweetness And A Grace?
Ideas
Grace
Dissonance
What Honest Boy Would Pride Himself On Not Picking Pockets ? A Thief Who Was Trying To Reform Would. To Be Conceited Of Doing One's Duty Is Then A Sign Of How Little One Does It, And How Little One Sees What A Contemptible Thing It Is Not To Do It. Could Any But A Low Creature Be Conceited Of Not Being Contemptible? Until Our Duty Becomes To Us Common As Breathing, We Are Poor Creatures.
Pride
Boys
Conceited
For The Greatest Fool And Rascal In Creation There Is Yet A Worse Condition; And That Is, Not To Know It, But To Think Himself A Respectable Man.
Men
Thinking
Fool
I Learned That It Is Better, A Thousandfold , For A Proud Man To Fall And Be Humbled, Than To Hold Up His Head In His Pride And Fancied Innocence. I Learned That He That Will Be A Hero, Will Barely Be A Man; That He That Will Be Nothing But A Doer Of His Work, Is Sure Of His Manhood. In Nothing Was My Ideal Lowered, Or Dimmed, Or Grown Less Precious; I Only Saw It Too Plainly, To Set Myself For A Moment Beside It.
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Fall
Pride
A Man Must Learn To Love His Children, Not Because They Are His, But Because They Are Children, Else His Love Will Be Scarcely A Better Thing At Last Than The Party-spirit Of The Faithful Politician.
Children
Party
Men
I Rose As From The Death That Wipes Out The Sadness Of Life, And Then Dies Itself In The New Morrow.
Sadness
Rose
Wipe
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The Region Of The Senses Is The Unbelieving Part Of The Human Soul.
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Belief
Humans
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God
Father
Home
Common People, Whether Lords Or Shop-keepers, Are Slow To Understand That Possession, Whether In The Shape Of Birth Or Lands Or Money Or Intellect, Is A Small Affair In The Difference Between Men.
Men
Differences
Land
Some Thinkers Would Feel Sorely Hampered If At Liberty To Use No Forms But Such As Existed In Nature, Or To Invent Nothing Save In Accordance With The Laws Of The World Of The Senses; But It Must Not Therefore Be Imagined That They Desire Escape From The Region Of Law.
Law
Desire
Liberty
A Man Is In Bondage To Whatever He Cannot Part With That Is Less Than Himself.
Men
Bondage
There Is No Harm In Being Afraid. The Only Harm Is In Doing What Fear Tells You. Fear Is Not Your Master! Laugh In His Face And He Will Run Away.
Running
Laughing
Faces
We Are Often Unable To Tell People What They Need To Know, Because They Want To Know Something Else, And Would Therefore Only Misunderstand What We Said.
People
Want
Needs
Come, Then, Affliction, If My Father Wills, And Be My Frowning Friend. A Friend That Frowns Is Better Than A Smiling Enemy.
Father
Enemy
Frowning
Afflictions Are But The Shadows Of God's Wings.
God
Christian
Wings
God Hides Nothing. His Very Work From The Beginning Is Revelation--a Casting Aside Of Veil After Veil, A Showing Unto Men Of Truth After Truth. On And On From Fact Divine He Advances, Until At Length In His Son Jesus He Unveils His Very Face.
God
Jesus
Son
In Giving, A Man Receives More Than He Gives; And The More Is In Proportion To The Worth Of The Thing Given.
Men
Giving
Charity
"but If God Is So Good As You Represent Him, And If He Knows All That We Need, And Better Far Than We Do Ourselves, Why Should It Be Necessary To Ask Him For Anything?" I Answer, "what If He Knows Prayer To Be The Thing We Need First And Most? What If The Main Object In God's Idea Of Prayer Be The Supplying Of Our Great, Our Endless Need - The Need Of Himself?"
God
Christian
Religious
A Perfect Faith Would Lift Us Absolutely Above Fear
Faith
Christian
Fear
For This, Deep Waters Whelm The Fruitful Lea, Wars Ravage, Famine Wastes, Plague Withers, Nor Shall Cease Till Men Have Chosen The Better Part.
War
Men
Deep Water
As In All Sweetest Music, A Tinge Of Sadness Was In Every Note. Nor Do We Know How Much Of The Pleasures Even Of Life We Owe To The Intermingled Sorrows. Joy Cannot Unfold The Deepest Truths, Although Deepest Truth Must Be Deepest Joy.
Sadness
Joy
Sorrow
It May Be Infinitely Worse To Refuse To Forgive Than To Murder, Because
Forgiveness
Forgiving
May
Forgiveness Unleashes Joy. It Brings Peace. It Washes The Slate Clean. It Sets All The Highest Values Of Love In Motion.
Forgiveness
Joy
Clean
This Is And Has Been The Father's Work From The Beginning-to Bring Us Into The Home Of His Heart.
Father
Home
Heart
To Be Trusted Is A Greater Compliment Than Being Loved.
Love
Life
Friendship
If You Care To See God, Be Pure. If You Will Not Be Pure, You Will Grow More And More Impure.
Sin
Grows
Determine
We Profess To Think Jesus The Grandest And Most Glorious Of Men, Yet Hardly Care To Be Like Him. When We Are Offered His Spirit, That Is, His Very Nature Within Us, For The Asking, We Will Hardly Take The Trouble To Ask For It.
Jesus
Men
Thinking
No Story Ever Really Ends, And I Think I Know Why.
Thinking
Stories
Ends
There Are Thousands Willing To Do Great Things For One Willing To Do A Small Thing.
Literature
Great Things
Willing
I Write, Not For Children,but For The Child-like, Whether They Be Of Five, Or Fifty, Or Seventy-five.
Children
Writing
Fifty
He Who Seeks The Father More Than Anything He Can Give, Is Likely To Have What He Asks, For He Is Not Likely To Ask Amiss.
Father
Giving
Asks
You've Got To Save Your Own Soul First, And Then The Souls Of Your Neighbors If They Will Let You; And For That Reason You Must Cultivate, Not A Spirit Of Criticism, But The Talents That Attract People To The Hearing Of The Word.
People
Soul
Criticism
Well, Perhaps; But I Begin To Think There Are Better Things Than Being Comfortable.
Thinking
Wells
Comfortable
[god Desires] Not That He May Say To Them, "look How Mighty I Am, And Go Down Upon Your Knees And Worship," For Power Alone Was Never Yet Worthy Of Prayer; But That He May Say Thus: "look, My Children, You Will Never Be Strong But With My Strength. I Have No Other To Give You. And That You Can Get Only By Trusting In Me. I Can Not Give It You Any Other Way. There Is No Other Way."
Strong
Prayer
Children
But It Is Not The Rich Man Only Who Is Under The Dominion Of Things; They Too Are Slaves Who, Having No Money, Are Unhappy From The Lack Of It.
Unhappy
Rich
Slave
They Will Pressure You Into Doing Things That May Be Unsafe, Use Your Good Judgment, And Remember, 'i Would Rather Be Laughed At, Than Cried For.'
Use
May
Pressure
It Is Simply Absurd To Say You Believe, Or Even Want To Believe, In Him, If You Do Not Do Anything He Tells You.
Believe
Want
Absurd
Friends, If We Be Honest With Ourselves, We Shall Be Honest With Each Other.
Inspirational
Truth
Honest
Heaven...a Place Where Everything That Is Not Music Is Silence.
Silence
Heaven
Music Is
As Many As Received Him, To Them Gave He Power To Become The Sons Of God.
Son
I Begin Indeed To Fear That I Have Undertaken An Impossibility, Undertaken To Tell What I Cannot Tell Because No Speech At My Command Will Fit The Forms In My Mind.
Mind
Speech
Fit
Instead Of Asking Yourself Whether You Believe Or Not, Ask Yourself Whether You Have, This Day, Done One Thing Because He Said, Do It! Or Once Abstained Because He Said, Do Not Do It! It Is Simply Absurd To Say You Believe, Or Even Want To Believe, In Him, If You Do Not Do Anything He Tells You.
Believe
Asking
Done
It Matters Little Where A Man May Be At This Moment; The Point Is Whether He Is Growing.
Men
Literature
Growing
The Direst Foe Of Courage Is The Fear Itself, Not The Object Of It; And The Man Who Can Overcome His Own Terror Is A Hero And More.
Fear
Hero
Men
If There Be A God And One Has Never Sought Him, It Will Be Small Consolation To Remember That One Could Not Get Proof Of His Existence.
Atheist
If There Is A God
Atheism
Difficulty Adds To Result, As The Ramming Of Powder Sends The Bullet The Further.
Add
Bullets
Powder
Right Gladly Would He Free Them From Their Misery, But He Knows Only One Way: He Will Teach Them To Be Like Himself, Meek And Lowly, Bearing With Gladness The Yoke Of His Father's Will. This In The One, The Only Right, The Only Possible Way Of Freeing Them From Their Sin, The Cause Of Their Unrest.
Father
Yoke
Unrest
Thou Art Beautiful Because God Created Thee, But Thou Art A Slave To Sin... Wickedness Has Made You Ugly.
Beautiful
Art
Wickedness
Above All Things, I Delight In Listening To Stories, And Sometimes In Telling Them.
Listening
Stories
Delight
You Will Be Dead So Long As You Refuse To Die.
Long
Refuse
Dies
Where Did You Get Your Eyes So Blue? Out Of The Sky As I Came Through.
Eye
Blue
Sky
To Have What We Want Is Riches; But To Be Able To Do Without Is Power.
Power
Contentment
Want
In Whatever Man Does Without God, He Must Fail Miserably, Or Succeed More Miserably.
Men
Doe
Succeed
There Is Little Hope Of The Repentance And Redemption Of Certain Some Until They Have Committed One Or Another Of The Many Wrong Things Of Which They Are Daily, Through A Course Of Unrestrained Selfishness, Becoming More And More Capable.
Selfishness
Redemption
Littles
If We Do Not Die To Ourselves, We Cannot Live To God, Andhe That Does Not Live To God, Is Dead.
Faith
Doe
Christianity
Let Me, If I May, Be Ever Welcomed To My Room In Winter By A Glowing Hearth, In Summer By A Vase Of Flowers. If I May Not, Let Me Think How Nice They Would Be And Bury Myself In My Work. I Do Not Think That The Road To Contentment Lies In Despising What We Have Not Got. Let Us Acknowledge All Good, All Delight That The Worlds Holds, And Be Content Without It.
Summer
Nice
Lying
The First Thing A Kindness Deserves Is Acceptance, The Second, Transmission.
Kindness
Acceptance
Firsts
By All Means Rid Yourself Of An Impoverished Faith.
Faith
Mean
There Is This Difference Between The Growth Of Some Human Beings And That Of Others: In The One Case It Is A Continuous Dying, In The Other A Continuous Resurrection.
Differences
Growth
Dying
Sad, Indeed, Would The Whole Matter Be If The Bible Had Told Us Everything God Meant Us To Believe. But Herein Is The Bible Greatly Wronged. It Nowhere Lays Claim To Be Regarded As The Word, The Way, The Truth. The Bible Leads Us To Jesus, The Inexhaustible, The Ever-unfolding Revelation Of God. It Is Christ "in Whom Are Hid All The Treasures Of Wisdom And Knowledge," Not The Bible, Save As Leading To Him.
Leadership
Jesus
Believe
The Boy Should Enclose And Keep, As His Life, The Old Child At The Heart Of Him, And Never Let It Go. He Must Still, To Be A Right Man, Be His Mother's Darling, And More, His Father's Pride, And More. The Child Is Not Meant To Die, But To Be Forever Fresh Born.
Mother
Children
Father
Many A Life Has Been Injured By The Constant Expectation Of Death. It Is Life We Have To Do With, Not Death. The Best Preparation For The Night Is To Work Diligently While The Day Lasts. The Best Preparation For Death Is Life.
Life
Work
Night
Anything Large Enough For A Wish To Light Upon, Is Large Enough To Hang A Prayer Upon.
Prayer
Light
Wish
In Moments Of Doubt I Cry, ‘could God Himself Create Such Lovely Things As I Dreamed?’ ‘whence Then Came Thy Dream?’ Answers Hope.
Dream
Lovely
Doubt
Love Is The Opener As Well As Closer Of Eyes.
Eye
Love Is
Wells
I Would Not Favour A Fiction To Keep A Whole World Out Of Hell. The Hell That A Lie Would Keep Any Man Out Of Is Doubtless The Very Best Place For Him To Go To. It Is Truth... That Saves The World.
Truth
Honesty
Lying
To Try To Be Brave Is To Be Brave.
Brave
Trying
Be Brave
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