Infinite riches in a little room.

Marlowe’s line comes from his narrative poem “Hero and Leander” (written in the 1590s; first published posthumously in 1598). In the poem’s luxuriant, witty description of erotic desire and courtship, Marlowe repeatedly compresses grand ideas into sensuous, physical images. The phrase “Infinite riches in a little room” occurs as part of a conceit about how immense value can be contained within a small space—an idea that suits the poem’s fascination with the body, intimacy, and the way desire magnifies what is near at hand. The line became widely excerpted as a standalone aphorism, often detached from its original erotic-poetic setting.

The phrase is a paradox: “infinite riches” suggests boundlessness, while “a little room” implies confinement. Marlowe exploits that tension to suggest that value is not proportional to size—great abundance can be concentrated, whether in a private chamber, a beloved’s presence, or the imaginative space of poetry itself. Read in context, it also gestures toward erotic intimacy: a small enclosed place can hold overwhelming pleasure and meaning. More broadly, the line has endured because it captures a Renaissance delight in conceits—ingenious verbal compressions that make the finite feel infinite through wit, desire, and imagination.