<Dd> Though the mills of God grind slowly; Yet they grind exceeding small; </Dd> <Dd> Though with patience He stands waiting, With exactness grinds He all . </Dd> <P> The proverb was used by Agatha Christie in her novel Hercule 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 by W. Somerset Maugham in the novel The 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, </P> <P> 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 . </P>

The mills of god grind slowly yet they grind exceedingly small