"sum of things" is a correct phrase and can be used in written English.
It refers to the total or collective amount of things. You can use it in various contexts, such as: 1. The sum of things I need for my trip includes a passport, visa, and travel insurance. 2. Despite facing many challenges, the sum of things I have achieved in my career is something I'm proud of. 3. The sum of things we have in common outweighs our differences. 4. The sum of things you learn in college goes beyond academic knowledge. 5. In order to find the solution, we need to consider the sum of things, not just individual factors.
I see books as part of a continuum – you do your bit in your lifetime, and hope it adds to the sum of things.
If it had been Linus Pauling and not Crick and Watson, what difference would it have made in the sum of things?
But it is far, far harder to admit that you have been completely unimportant; that in the great sum of things all a man's endless grapplings are no more significant than the scuttlings of a cockroach.
When you write criticism about literature or any other subject, you're writing for literature or that subject, even more than you're writing for your reader: you're adding to the accumulated sum of things that have been said about your subject over the years.
For example, that one sees the sum of things as a vast machine may be suggested by what goes on in science, but this view can neither claim scientific warrant itself nor draw on scientific prestige, because it seems to spring from nothing better than mere whim.
Holguin likes to say, "Design is in something, style is in the sum of things," and describes RTH (the name is derived from his initials) as "Real.
Sums, it is usually held, are always sums of things, and these sums are themselves things, and can even be counted.
As for those who reject the paranormal underpinnings of "Odd Thomas": they are frightened "by the prospect of opening their minds and hearts to the truth of a universe far more complex and meaningful than the material world that their education tells them is the sum of all things".
Mr. Long's motivation is the sum of many things: 40 operations; 5 months in the hospital; the fear that he would never walk again; a sense of valor tested at the World Trade Center on 9/11, where he helped rescue trapped comrades.
Therefore the sum of all things exists.
Therefore God the sum of all things—exists.
