Plutarch (1st century CE) alludes to the metaphor as a then-current adage in hisMoralia (De sera numinis vindicta "On the Delay of Divine Vengeance"):
"Thus, I do not see what use there is in those mills of the gods said to grind so late as to render punishment hard to be recognized, and to make wickedness fearless."[3]
Plutarch no doubt here makes reference to a hexameter by an unknown poet, cited by sceptic philosopherSextus Empiricus (2nd century) in hisAdversus Grammaticos as a popular adage:[4]
Ὀψὲ θεῶν ἀλέουσι μύλοι, ἀλέουσι δὲ λεπτά.
"The millstones of the gods grind late, but they grind fine."[5]
The same expression was invoked byCelsus in his (lost)True Discourse.Defending the concept ofancestral fault, Celsus reportedly quoted "a priest of Apollo or of Zeus":
The expression was anthologised in English translation byGeorge Herbert in his collection of proverbs entitledJacula Prudentum (1652), as "God's mill grinds slow but sure" (no. 743).GermanepigrammatistFriedrich von Logau, in hisSinngedichte (c. 1654), composed an extended variant of the saying under the title "Göttliche Rache" (divine retribution),[10]
Gottes Mühlen mahlen langsam, mahlen aber trefflich klein, ob aus Langmut er sich säumet, bringt mit Schärf 'er alles ein.
Arthur Conan Doyle alluded to the proverb in his very firstSherlock Holmes adventure,A Study in Scarlet. The allusion is found in the fourth chapter of the second part, in a scene in which the character John Ferrier is confronted by two of the Mormon characters:
. . . Both of them nodded to Ferrier as he entered, and the one in the rocking-chair commenced the conversation.
“Maybe you don’t know us,” he said. “This here is the son of Elder Drebber, and I’m Joseph Stangerson, who travelled with you in the desert when the Lord stretched out His hand and gathered you into the true fold.”
“As He will all the nations in His own good time,” said the other in a nasal voice; “He grindeth slowly but exceeding small.” John Ferrier bowed coldly. He had guessed who his visitors were. . . .
Arthur Conan Doyle,A Study in Scarlet (1886) (emphasis added).
The proverb was used byAgatha Christie in her novelHercule Poirot's Christmas, as a person quoted it when they saw the corpse of a man who had lived an evil life. It was also referred to byW. Somerset Maugham in the novelThe Moon and Sixpence wherein it is used, somewhat piously, by a family member to imply a certain justice in the demise of the central character Charles Strickland,
Then I told them what I had learned about Charles Strickland in Tahiti. I thought it unnecessary to say anything of Ata and her boy, but for the rest I was as accurate as I could be. When I had narrated his lamentable death I ceased. For a minute or two we were all silent. Then Robert Strickland struck a match and lit a cigarette."The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small," he said, somewhat impressively.
— W. Somerset Maugham, "The Moon and Sixpence" (1919)
During the Second World War, bothWinston Churchill andFranklin Roosevelt quoted Longfellow when promising retribution for the extermination of the Jews.[12]
^The Greek μύλοι is plural, referring to twogrindstones (i.e.quern and handstone) forming a single mill; the Latin translation byGentian Hervetus (1569) renders this asmola "mill" in the singular:Est mola tarda dei, verum molit illa minutim.
^Book 8 verse 15Sibylline Oracles trans. M. S. Terry (1890) "Late will the mills of God grind the fine flour".On the date of c. AD 175 for book 8, verses 1–216 see: J. J. Collins "Sibylline Oracles (Second Century B.C.–Seventh Century A.D)" in: Charlesworth (ed.), Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 1, Hendrickson Publishers (1983), 317–472 (here: p. 416).
^Erasmus of Rotterdam,Adagia 3382 (4.4.82)Sero molunt deorum molae: Plutarchus in commentario cui titulus Πέρι τὦν ὑπὸ τοῦ θείου βραδέως τιμωρουμένων : Ὥστε οὐχ ὁρὦ τί χρήσιμον ἔνεστι τοῖς ὀψὲ δὴ τούτοις ἀλεῖν λεγομένοις μύλοις τὦν θεὦν, id est Itaque non video quidnam utilitatis insit istis deorum molis quae sero dicuntur molere. Caeterum ex his quae praecedunt eodem in loco, colligere licet dici solitum de his qui, licet serius, tamen aliquando poenas dant malefactorum vindici deo.
^Early New High German variants:Gots mül steht offt lang stil; Die götter malen oder scheren eim langsam, aber wol. Nina-Maria Klug,Das konfessionelle Flugblatt 1563–1580: Eine Studie zur historischen Semiotik und Textanalyse, volume 112 ofStudia Linguistica Germanica, Walter de Gruyter, 2012p. 189
^Hugh Rawson; Margaret Miner, eds. (2006)."God, 8".The Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 289.ISBN978-0-19-516823-5.
French, A. L. (August 1974). "The mills of God and Shakespeare's early history plays".English Studies.55 (4):313–324.doi:10.1080/00138387408597630.
Hrynick, Tobias (19 April 2022). "The mills of god grind slowly: the Na'aman River milling dispute and the thirteenth-century hydraulic crisis in the Crusader States".Water History.14:61–83.doi:10.1007/s12685-022-00296-w.S2CID248231852.
McAdam, Ian (1 March 2020). "Dickens, Longfellow, and the Mills of God".Notes and Queries.67 (1):108–109.doi:10.1093/notesj/gjz189.
