Quotes from the World for February 15th

What we call little things are merely the causes of great things; they are the beginning, the embryo, and it is the point of departure which, generally speaking, decides the whole future of an existence. One single black speck may be the beginning of a gangrene, of a storm, of a revolution.

Henri-Frédéric Amiel
Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881), Swiss philosopher, poet. Journal Intime, entry for Mar. 16, 1868 (1882), trans. by Mrs. Humphry Ward (1892).