Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.

The saying expresses a pragmatic, incremental view of achievement: major undertakings rarely begin fully formed, but grow out of modest openings that are recognized and acted upon. It encourages attentiveness to seemingly minor chances—small commissions, introductions, or early experiments—because they can compound into larger ventures through persistence and skill. Attributed to Demosthenes, the idea aligns broadly with classical Greek rhetorical and ethical commonplaces about foresight (pronoia), initiative, and the cultivation of advantage, even if the exact wording is likely a later English formulation rather than a verbatim ancient sentence.