“Those who cannot feel the littleness of great things in themselves are apt to overlook the greatness of little things in others.”
Documented source
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About this line
Okakura aimed it at a Western audience that treated the tea ceremony as a curiosity. The next sentence names the target: “The average Westerner, in his sleek complacency, will see in the tea ceremony but another instance of the thousand and one oddities…”
The sentence outlives its target. It’s built as a chiasmus: the second half reverses the first, littleness of great things against greatness of little things.
Why we carry this line
We are always our toughest critics. So many of us have great things in us, though sometimes they’re small. We’re too busy saying we’re awful to stop and see them.
The design
The layout follows the reversal. The first half hangs from the left margin, the second from the right. The four mirrored phrases are large; the connecting words are small and quiet. From across a room you read the turn. Up close you read the whole sentence.
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