Lin Yutang? Venita Cravens? Walter Savage Landor? Andrew Marvell? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: Exceptional individuals accomplished remarkable feats in the past. Unhappy critics complain that the current period lacks great figures. The talents and achievements of popular people are diminutive. Here are two versions of a pertinent metaphorical adage:
(1) Little men throw long shadows because our sun is setting.
(2) When small men cast big shadows the sun is about to set.
This saying has been attributed to English writer Walter Savage Landor, Chinese linguist Lin Yutang, and U.S. theater promoter Venita Cravens. I am having trouble finding a good citation. Would you please help?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match found by QI appeared in a work published by Walter Savage Landor in 1846. Landor wrote a series of “Imaginary Conversations” between prominent historical figures. The 1846 work depicted a fictional discussion between English poet Andrew Marvell and English Bishop Samuel Parker. Marvell criticized contemporary figures, and Parker asserted that Marvell’s judgement was too harsh. “Marvell” was spelled as “Marvel”. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Parker. Ever too hard upon great men, Mr. Marvel!
Marvel. Little men in lofty places, who throw long shadows because our sun is setting: the men so little and the places so lofty, that, casting my pebble, I only show where they stand. They would be less contented with themselves if they had obtained their preferment honestly.
This saying has been expressed in many different ways. QI believes that the diverse phrasings evolved from the statement written by Walter Savage Landor.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In April 1846 “The Edinburgh Review” of Edinburgh, Scotland published a review of Landor’s 1846 collection of “Imaginary Conversations”. The reviewer found the quotation to be memorable and reprinted it. The reviewer credited “Marvel” although Landor was the true author:2
‘Little men in lofty places, who throw long shadows, because our sun is setting.’—(Marvel’s definition of the statesmen of his time.)
Landor used the term “little men” metaphorically to refer to undistinguished men. The 1857 book “A Polyglot of Foreign Proverbs” included two counterpoint expressions in French and Italian about physically small men who were worthy of admiration:3
Un petit homme projette parfois une grande ombre.
A little man sometimes casts a long shadow.Di picciol uomo spesso grand’ ombra.
A little man often casts a long shadow.
Landor’s remark continued to circulate in 1865 when a slightly rephrased version appeared in the New York periodical “Frank Leslie’s New Monthly”:4
It is Walter Savage Landor who says: “Little men in lofty places throw long shadows, because our sun is setting.”
In 1899 “The Law Times” of London quoted an Irish judge who used a version of the expression without attribution:5
Judge Adams delivered one of his inimitable speeches at a meeting in Dublin last week, and gave utterance to as many good things in the space of ten minutes as most men utter in a lifetime. He described the present period of decadence in English literature as “an age when little men cast long shadows because the sun is setting.”
In 1923 a newspaper in Tuscaloosa, Alabama printed a thematically related quip:6
Even a small man can cast a big shadow in the sunshine if he hits the right angle.
In May 1954 a columnist in a Fort Lauderdale, Florida newspaper described an anonymous instance of the expression as an “old saying”:7
When men of small stature begin to cast long shadows, an old saying has it, it is a sure sign the sun is going down.
In June 1954 the “Stanly News and Press” of Albemarle, North Carolina printed this instance without attribution:8
“When small men cast long shadows it’s a sure sign the sun is setting.”
In November 1954 the “Ukiah Daily Journal” of Ukiah, California printed the following version with the word “begin”:9
Now is the time to remember that “when small men begin to cast long shadows the sun is beginning to set.”
The connection of the saying to Landor was not forgotten. In 1958 a columnist in the “Bergen Evening Record” of Hackensack, New Jersey credited Landor with a rephrased version of the adage:10
Looking at the world around you and the size of the men in it, bar none, are you too ever gloomily reminded of that dictum of Walter Savage Landor’s?
“When a small man casts a long shadow,” he rasped, “it’s a sign the sun is going down.”
In 1960 the precision machinery company Warner & Swasey published the saying within an advertisement in “Newsweek” magazine:11
“When small men begin to cast long shadows it is a sure sign that the sun is setting”
And too many very small men are casting deeply black shadows across America today.
In 1962 publisher and quotation collector Bennett Cerf included the saying within his syndicated newspaper column. Cerf credited a Chinese linguist and author:12
Lin Yutang: When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set.
In 1965 Jacob M. Braude published “Proverbs, Epigrams, Aphorisms, Sayings, and Bon Mots”. Braude did not specify an ascription for the saying:13
When small men cast big shadows, it means the sun is about to set.
Also, in 1965 Bennett Cerf published “Laugh Day: A New Treasury of Over 1000 Humorous Stories and Anecdotes”. Cerf repeated the item from his newspaper column:14
Lin Yutang: “When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set.”
In 1989 “The New Official Rules: Maxims for Muddling Through to the Twenty-First Century” compiled by Paul Dickson included this item:15
Warner Swayze Axiom. When small men begin to cast large shadows, it is a sure sign that the sun is setting.— in a Warner Swayze ad; from Robert E. Blay
In 1992 “Treasury of Women’s Quotations” compiled by Carolyn Warner contained this item:16
When small men cast long shadows the sun is going down.
Venita Cravens
In 1997 “The Forbes Book of Business Quotations” included the same item:17
When small men cast long shadows the sun is going down.
Venita Cravens
In conclusion, Walter Savage Landor deserves credit for this saying based on the 1846 citation. Landor’s fictional version of Andrew Marvell employed the saying. The candidates Lin Yutang and Venita Cravens were born after the saying was in circulation.
Image Notes: Picture of a person casting a shadow from Martino Pietropoli at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Mardy Grothe whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Quotation expert Grothe operates the fascinating website Great Opening Lines.
- 1846, The Works of Walter Savage Landor, Volume 2 of 2, Section: Imaginary Conversations, Chapter: Andrew Marvel and Bishop Parker, Start Page 98, Quote Page 105, Note: “Andrew Marvell” was spelled as “Andrew Marvel” within this book, Edward Moxon, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1846 April, The Edinburgh Review, Or Critical Journal, Volume 83, Number 168, Article 9: Review of The Collected Writings of Walter Savage Landor: New Imaginary Conversations, Start Page 486, Quote Page 508, Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Edinburgh, Scotland. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1857, A Polyglot of Foreign Proverbs, Edited by Henry G. Bohn, French Proverbs and Italian Proverbs, Quote Page 62 and 92, Henry G. Bohn, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1865 June, Frank Leslie’s New Monthly, Volume 4, Number 5, Fun For The Family, Quote Page 397, Frank Leslie, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1899 November 25, The Law Times, Irish Notes, Start Page 75, Quote Page 76, Column 1, Published at the Office of the Law Times, London. (Google Books Full Vie) link ↩︎
- 1923 November 5, The Tuscaloosa News, The Fortyniner, Quote Page 1, Column 4, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1954 May 9, Fort Lauderdale Sunday News, Courthouse Chaff by Fred Tounsley, Quote Page 2B, Column 1, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1954 June 25, Stanly News and Press, Wiscassett Memorial: YMCA News, Quote Page 14B, Column 4, Albemarle, North Carolina. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1954 November 3, Ukiah Daily Journal, Spotlight by H. M. Ivey, Start Page 1, Quote Page 1 and 6, Ukiah, California. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1958 January 14, Bergen Evening Record, Simeon Stylites: A Variety of Things by William A. Caldwell, Quote Page 32, Column 7, Hackensack, New Jersey. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1960 February 29, Newsweek, (Advertisement by Warner & Swasey of Cleveland, Ohio), Quote Page 1, Column 1, New York. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1962 July 19, Lewiston Evening Journal, Try and Stop Me by Bennett Cerf, Quote Page 18, Column 6, Lewiston, Maine. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1965, Proverbs, Epigrams, Aphorisms, Sayings, and Bon Mots by Jacob M. Braude, Series: Complete Speaker’s and Toastmaster’s Library, Topic: Inconsequence, Quote Page 35, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1965, Laugh Day: A New Treasury of Over 1000 Humorous Stories and Anecdotes by Bennett Cerf, Chapter 22: You Can Say That Again!, Quote Page 464, Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1989, The New Official Rules: Maxims for Muddling Through to the Twenty-First Century, Compiled by Paul Dickson, Quote Page 217, Published by Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, Massachusetts. (Verified with hardcopy) ↩︎
- 1992, Treasury of Women’s Quotations, Compiled by Carolyn Warner, Chapter 7: Character, Quote Page 53, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1997, The Forbes Book of Business Quotations: 14,173 Thoughts on the Business of Life, Edited by Ted Goodman, Topic: Life, Quote Page 517, Column 2, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎