Quoted in SEXTUS EMPIRICUS Against Professors I. 287
the mills of the gods are late to grind, but they grind small.
1640 G. HERBERT Outlandish Proverbs no. 747 Gods Mill grinds slow, but sure.
1870 LONGFELLOW Poems (1960) 331 Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they
grind exceeding small; Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he
all. 1942 ‘F. BEEDING’ Twelve Disguises i. That’s my business. .. The mills of God
grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small. 1989 R. HART Remains to be Seen vii.
Military record keepers were like the mills of God. They ground slow, and exceeding
small, but only at their own pace. justice and injustice; retribution
mind see the EYES are the window of the soul; GREAT minds think alike; LITTLE things
please little minds; OUT of sight, out of mind; TRAVEL broadens the mind.
The age of MIRACLES is past
1599 SHAKESPEARE Henry V I. i. 67 It must be so; for miracles are ceas’d; And
therefore we must needs admit the means How things are perfected. 1602— All’s Well
that Ends Well II. iii. 1 They say miracles are past; and we have our philosophical
persons to make modern and familiar things supernatural and causeless. 1840 CARLYLE
On Heroes & Hero Worship iv. The Age of Miracles past? The Age of Miracles is for
ever here! 1988 J. MORTIMER Rumpole and Age of Miracles (1989) 108 ‘A total
victory,’ I agreed. ‘The Age of Miracles is not past.’ marvels
mischief see the MOTHER of mischief is no bigger than a midge’s wing.
MISERY loves company
Now predominantly current in the United States. Cf. mid 14th-cent. L. gaudium est miseris
socios habuisse penarum, it is a comfort to the wretched to have companions in woes; a 1349
R. ROLLE Meditations on Passion in C. Horstmann Yorkshire Writers (1895) I. 101 It is
solace to haue companie in peyne.
1578 LYLY Euphues I. 238 In miserie Euphues it is a great comfort to haue a
companion. 1620 T. SHELTON tr. Cervantes’ Don Quixote II. xiii. If that which is
commonly spoken be true, that to haue companions in misery is a lightner of it, you may