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Quote by James Herriot

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All Creatures Great and Small: The classic memoirs of a Yorkshire country vet

This beloved memoir captures the author's life and work in the 1930s as a veterinarian in the picturesque Yorkshire Dales. The book offers a charming glimpse into the daily life of a country vet, filled with humorous anecdotes and poignant stories of the animals and people he encounters. more

Author

James Herriot
James Herriot

James Herriot was a veterinary surgeon known for his heartwarming stories of rural veterinary practice. His works depicted his experiences as a veterinarian in the English countryside of Yorkshire, as well as his deep relationships with animal and human clients. more

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“It is by discourse that men associate, and words are imposed according to the apprehension of the vulgar. And therefore the ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obsesses the understanding. Nor do the definitions or explanations wherewith in some things learned men are wont to guard and defend themselves, by any means set the matter right. But words plainly force and overrule the understanding, and throw all into confusion, and lead men away into innumerable and inane controversies and fancies.”

“But the idols of the Market Place are the most troublesome of all: idols which have crept into the understanding through their alliances with words and names. For men believe that their reason governs words. But words turn and twist the understanding. This it is that has rendered philosophy and the sciences inactive. Words are mostly cut to the common fashion and draw the distinctions which are most obvious to the common understanding. Whenever an understanding of greater acuteness or more diligent observation would alter those lines to suit the true distinctions of nature, words complain.”

“How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, how complicate, how wonderful is man! Distinguished link in being's endless chain! Midway from nothing to the Deity! Dim miniature of greatness absolute! An heir of glory! A frail child of dust! Helpless immortal! Insect infinite! A worm! A God!”