"The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them."

Oliver Goldsmith Literature See all quotes by Oliver Goldsmith →

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“These little things are great to little man.”

“As writers become more numerous, it is natural for readers to become more indolent.”

“And learn the luxury of doing good.”

“The best-humour'd man, with the worst-humour'd Muse.”

“I...chose a wife, as she did her wedding gown, not for a fine glossy surface, but such qualities as would wear well.”

“But winter lingering chills the lap of May.”

Resonant Thoughts

"That was what drew him to mathematics. Not because it was rarefied, but because it probed to the subtle, deeper reality. People said that mathematicians were unworldly, and yammered on about how Einst…"

— Gregory Benford

Science1941

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"Forgiveness is the true nature of the ascetic."

— Ramakrishna

Religion1836–1886

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"I am speaking in dead earnest, before God. God's own truth. It has the violence of robbery, the blood and cruelty of piracy. It has the offensive and brutal lusts of polygamy, all combined and concent…"

— Owen Lovejoy

Politics1811–1864

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