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Context: A recent meeting between Chinese and American Foreign affairs bosses in Munich.

Original:

双方就开展人文交流，便利人员往来交换了意见。王毅敦促美方停止无端滋扰盘查中国公民，多做有利于增进两国人民相互了解的事情，并送美方一句古话：“勿以恶小而为之，勿以善小而不为。

During their exchange of views on people to people exchange, Wang urged US (Homeland Security) to stop picking on Chinese visitors (at the border), to do more to favor mutual understanding between the peoples of the 2 nations, and quoted "no evil is too small to do, and no good is too small to pass up".

What I'm looking for: an idiomatic succinct rendering in English, the shorter the sweeter. What I'm NOT looking for: explanatory long-winded sentence - I'm a native Chinese speaker in quest of a perfect English equivalent.

Off the top of my head: no evil is too small, no good is too trivial. but not sure if it does justice to the Chinese proverb, nor about the collocation of good and trivial.

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  • @KillingTime Please be careful with your edits.
    – Andrew Leach ♦
    Commented Feb 18 at 11:27
  • Asking for an existing proverb is OK, but asking for a sentence to be rewritten is usually off-topic.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Feb 18 at 11:50
  • 1
    'No evil is too small to do' needs to be say 'no evil is too small to bother about'.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Feb 18 at 15:47
  • 1
    No evil is too small to confront - no good is too small to take up?? (Pass up has the wrong meaning entirely - it's backwards.
    – Phil Sweet
    Commented Feb 18 at 16:19
  • What about your mistakes? Like quoted instead of said. or [people-to-people exchange.
    – Lambie
    Commented Feb 18 at 16:59

1 Answer 1

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  • All big things come from small beginnings.

This truism is from James Clear (and probably many others).

The proverb

  • From the little acorn, the mighty oak did grow.

is far more idiomatic, nicely metaphorical ... but talks only about small good deeds leading to good outcomes.

To balance,

  • All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.

This marvellous quote is 'routinely attributed to Edmund Burke. But it turns out falsely so. Apparently, he never uttered these words. At best, the essence of the quote can be traced back to the utilitarian philosopher John Stuart Mill ...'. [Open Culture]

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