quote · Legacy record
Life has been compared to a race, but the allusion still improves, by observing that the most swift are ever the least manageable, the most apt to stray from the course. Great abilities have always been less serviceable to the possessors than moderate ones.
Life has been compared to a race, but the allusion still improves, by observing that the most swift are ever the least manageable, the most apt to stray from the course. Great abilities have always been less serviceable to the possessors than moderate ones.
Approximate author period: c. 1751 AD · early modern
Meaning not yet available
An individual explanation has not yet been added. We do not substitute a generic description for an interpretation of these particular words.
Begin with source-checked readings and explanations ↗Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Oliver Goldsmith
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1751 AD · early modern
author lifetime midpoint (1728–1774)
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- Dictionary of Quotations (1893) (1893 AD)
Printed citation: Goldsmith. · page_246
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.