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The wisdom of the ignorant somewhat resembles the instinct of animals it is diffused in but a very narrow sphere, but within the circle it acts with vigor, uniformity, and success.

Oliver Goldsmith

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Oliver Goldsmith
Age: 43 †
Born: 1730
Born: November 10
Died: 1774
Died: April 4
Dramaturge
Essayist
Literary Critic
Novelist
Physician
Physician Writer
Playwright
Poet
Polygraph
Theatrical Producer
Writer
Elphin
County Roscommon
Oliver Goldsmit
Doctor Goldsmith
Oliverio Goldsmith
Oliverus Goldsmith
Olver Goldsmith
Olivier Goldsmith
Dottor Golssmith
Tom Telescope
Solomon Winlove
James Willington
Author of the Vicar of Wakefield
Dr Goldsmith
Inspired Idiot
Animals
Spheres
Animal
Somewhat
Wisdom
Narrow
Within
Circle
Diffused
Success
Circles
Resembles
Acts
Uniformity
Ignorant
Vigor
Instinct
Sphere

More quotes by Oliver Goldsmith

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Quality and title have such allurements that hundreds are ready to give up all their own importance, to cringe, to flatter, to look little, and to pall every pleasure in constraint, merely to be among the great, though without the least hopes of improving their understanding or sharing their generosity. They might be happier among their equals.
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Where wealth and freedom reign contentment fails, And honour sinks where commerce long prevails.
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The work of eradicating crimes is not by making punishment familiar, but formidable.
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A boy will learn more true wisdom in a public school in a year than by a private education in five. It is not from masters, but from their equals, that youth learn a knowledge of the world.
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Crimes generally punish themselves.
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Whenever you see a gaming table be sure to know fortune is not there. Rather she is always in the company of industry.
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Our bounty, like a drop of water, disappears, when diffus'd too widely
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The company of fools may first make us smile, but in the end we always feel melancholy.
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That virtue which requires to be ever guarded is scarce worth the sentinel.
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The soul may be compared to a field of battle, where the armies are ready every moment to encounter. Not a single vice but has a more powerful opponent, and not one virtue but may be overborne by a combination of vices.
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So the loud torrent, and the whirlwind's roar, But bind him to his native mountains more.
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Absence, like death, sets a seal on the image of those we love: we cannot realize the intervening changes which time may have effected.
Oliver Goldsmith
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In all the silent manliness of grief.
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A volcano may be considered as a cannon of immense size.
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The first time I read an excellent book, it is to me just as if I had gained a new friend. When I read a book over I have perused before, it resembles the meeting with an old one.
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Every want that stimulates the breast becomes a source of pleasure when redressed.
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Thus let me hold thee to my heart, And every care resign: And we shall never, never part, My life-my all that's mine!
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All the sciences are, in some measure, linked with each other, and before the one is ended, the other begins.
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Those who think must govern those that toil.
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It is impossible to combat enthusiasm with reason for though it makes a show of resistance, it soon eludes the pressure, refers you to distinctions not to be understood, and feelings which it cannot explain. A man who would endeavor to fix an enthusiast by argument might as well attempt to spread quicksilver with his finger.
Oliver Goldsmith