“When the Gauls laid waste Rome, they found the senators clothed in their robes, and seated in stern tranquillity in their curule chairs; in this manner they suffered death without resistance or supplication. Such conduct was in them applauded as noble and magnanimous; in the hapless Indians it was reviled as both obstinate and sullen. How truly are we the dupes of show and circumstances! How different is virtue, clothed in purple and enthroned in state, from virtue, naked and destitute, and perishing obscurely in a wilderness.” DifferentStatesShowsFoundVirtueCircumstancesWasteNobleResistanceNakedChairsWildernessRomeSenatorsPurpleRobesObstinateTranquillityDestituteSullenSupplicationDupesPerishingMagnanimous Book:History, Tales, and Sketches Source: History, Tales, and Sketches
“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.” MenWellsReasonShowsFeelingsMightImpossibleUnderstoodArgumentPressureFingersSpreadResistanceEnthusiasmDistinctionEndeavorCombatElude Book:The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M. B.: Including a Variety of Pieces Source: The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M. B.: Including a Variety of Pieces