Meaning & Analysis
A large amount is made up of many small parts; consistent small additions eventually result in something significant.
Insights
Accumulation Over Time
Emphasizes the power of gradual accumulation—whether of money, effort, or knowledge. What may seem insignificant in isolation becomes substantial through consistency.
Value of Small Contributions
Highlights that even modest efforts or resources have worth and impact when combined. It encourages appreciation of incremental progress and communal effort.
Patience and Persistence
Implies that persistent small actions can lead to major outcomes. It promotes steady effort and long-term vision over haste or grand gestures.
Popular Economic Wisdom
Historically invoked in thrift and saving contexts, the proverb served as practical advice for households and workers. In economies where accumulation was slow, it affirmed hope in diligent frugality.
Communal Ethics
Has a communal undertone—small offerings or contributions from many people can support large causes. This reflects values of mutual aid, collective labor, and shared responsibility.
Psychology of Progress
Acknowledges a cognitive truth: small accomplishments, when visible or cumulative, generate motivation. The proverb subtly promotes delayed gratification and perseverance.
Moral of Scale and Humility
Undermines arrogance in greatness by showing that all 'mickle' (greatness) is built from 'little.' It offers a humbling view that large things owe their existence to the modest and minute.
Rhetorical Devices
Alliteration
Repetition of the 'm' and 'l' sounds ('many', 'little', 'mickle') gives the phrase rhythmic cohesion and enhances its oral transmission and memorability.
Antithesis
Contrasts 'little' and 'mickle' to dramatize the transformation from small to great, emphasizing growth and scale.
Repetition
The use of 'many a little' reinforces the core idea of accumulation and underscores the importance of quantity in repetition.
Transcription
Quotations
If to a lytell thou addest a lyttell more In space of tyme thou shalte have mykell store.
Many lytle offerynges makythe a heuy boxe.
We commonly say in englyshe: Many a lytle maketh a greate.
Many a little maketh a great.
Manie littles makis an meikle.
Many littles make a mickle; many small parcells ioyned together make vp a great bodie, or bulke.
(Euery little).
Many littles make a mickle.
And therefore that old saying Many a little makes a mickle is now a maine plea for the poore.
Many a little, saith the proverb, make a mickle.
Many littles make a great.
(The Scot says, Many).
[As in 1620 Shelton].
Many drops make a shower; many littles make a mickle.
[As in 1620 Shelton].
(make).
(Every little).
Cross References
- See St., no. 1175.
- D617 Many (Small) drops make a shower (flood)
- G398 Grain by grain and the hen (ant) fills her belly (his barn)
- L372 Little and often fills the purse
- P201 Penny and penny laid up will be many
- S554 Many smalls make a great
- W935 Everything helps, quoth the wren when she pissed in the sea.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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