“Don't let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter.”
Act I, Scene 1 http://books.google.com/books?id=sZloXETcr24C&q=%22Don't+let+us+make+imaginary+evils+when+you+know+we+have+so+many+real+ones+to+encounter%22&pg=PA21#v=onepage.
The Good-Natured Man (1768)
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Oliver Goldsmith 134
Irish physician and writer 1728–1774Related quotes

The Basic Teachings - Part 3: Orientation to the Teaching (2010), Wake Up San Francisco event (2015)

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“It is folly to anticipate evils, and madness to create imaginary ones.”
4 August 1796
1750s, Diaries (1750s-1790s)

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Lyrics, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004)
Source: Lacon (1820) Vol. I; CCCCXXVII (7th Edition, published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, in 1821)