The letter

One idea per letter

Each edition follows one idea about how to live across time: the earliest source we can find, then the books that said it again, with the passages.

Edition 1 is Small steps add up. Edition 2 is Some things are up to you.

Free, one idea a week. You confirm by email first, and every edition has an unsubscribe link.

Written BeforeNo. 1

Self-help, with the dates put back.

Idea 6 of 12

Small steps add up

Big results come from small actions done often. Add a little to a little, keep doing it, and it becomes a lot. You have probably met that in a recent book. The earliest source we can find was written around 700 BCE, in lines 361-362 of Hesiod’s Works and Days. That makes the idea about 2,700 years old.

c. 700 BCE

Earliest we can find

“for if you add only a little to a little and do this often, soon that little will become great.”

The archive

Every edition, oldest first.

No.	Date	Edition	Earliest we can find
1	Not sent yet	Small steps add up: five times since c. 700 BCEThe earliest source we can find is Hesiod, around 700 BCE. The four later books credit no one that we can find.	c. 700 BCE Hesiod, Works and Days
2	Not sent yet	Some things are up to you: nine times since c. 125 CEThe earliest place we can find it is from around 125 CE. Four later writers name Epictetus.	c. 125 CE Epictetus, Enchiridion