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Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes

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Famous Oliver Goldsmith Quotes

“If we look round the world, there seem to be not above six distinct varieties in the human species, each of which is strongly marked, and speaks the kind seldom to have mixed with any other. But there is nothing in the shape, nothing in the faculties, that shows their coming from different originals; and the varieties of climate, of nourishment, and custom, are sufficient to produce every change.”

IfsWorldHumansLooksKindDifferentShowsSeemsScienceSpeakProduceEvolutionShapesSixOriginalsClimateSpeciesRoundsVarietySufficientFacultyCustomsNourishmentHuman Species
Book:A History of the Earth, and Animated Nature
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“We may affirm of Mr. Buffon, that which has been said of the chemists of old; though he may have failed in attaining his principal aim, of establishing a theory, yet he has brought together such a multitude of facts relative to the history of the earth, and the nature of its fossil productions, that curiosity finds ample compensation, even while it feels the want of conviction.”

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Book:A history of the earth and animated nature, with an intr. view of the animal kingdom tr. from the Fr. of baron Cuvier, notes [and] a life of the author by W. Irving
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“[T]here are depths of thousands of miles which are hidden from our inquiry. The only tidings we have from those unfathomable regions are by means of volcanoes, those burning mountains that seem to discharge their materials from the lowest abysses of the earth.”

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Book:A History of the Earth: And Animated Nature
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“Whatever the skill of any country may be in the sciences, it is from its excellence in polite learning alone that it must expect a character from posterity.”

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Book:An inquiry into the present state of polite learning. The Bee. History of Cyrillo Padovano. Life of Dr. Parnell. Life of Lord Bolingbroke. Prefaces and introductions
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