Daily Inspiration Quote by Dwight L. Moody

Moody’s line needles a particular kind of religious vanity: the appetite for heroism without the discipline of habit. The phrasing sets up a trap. “Great things” sounds like revival tents, public conversions, dramatic sacrifice - the sort of deeds that also happen to look good in a testimonial. Then he pivots to “little things,” and suddenly the issue isn’t capacity but willingness. The moral bar drops, and that’s exactly the point: what exposes sincerity isn’t the once-in-a-lifetime leap, but the daily inch.

The intent is pastoral but unsentimental. Moody isn’t scolding people for lacking ambition; he’s diagnosing a spiritual loophole where believers fantasize about grand callings to avoid the quieter work of patience, service, and self-restraint. “For the Lord” adds bite. If your motivation is truly Godward, the size of the task shouldn’t matter. Moody implies that craving the “great” can be a disguised form of self-interest, a desire to be seen as useful, brave, chosen.

Context matters: Moody rose as America’s most famous evangelist in a century addicted to spectacle - mass meetings, booming cities, a culture learning how to consume big experiences. His ministry ran on scale, yet he understood the danger of confusing religious intensity with religious maturity. The subtext is almost managerial: revival won’t be sustained by peak moments; it lives or dies on unglamorous follow-through. The line endures because it punctures a modern temptation too - branding our values while neglecting the small, costly behaviors that would actually prove them.