Famous Oliver Goldsmith Quotations

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"The very pink of perfection."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Surely the best way to meet the enemy is head on in the field and not wait till they plunder our very homes."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no fibs."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Don't let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Every absurdity has a champion to defend it, for error is always talkative."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"He makes a very handsome corpse and becomes his coffin prodigiously."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Hope, like the gleaming taper's light, Adorns and cheers our way And still, as darker grows the night, Emits a brighter ray."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Ill fares the land, to hast'ning ill a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay Princes and Lords may flourish, or may fade A breath can make them, as a breath has made but a bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once destroyed can never be supplied."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"The dancing pair that simply sought renown,By holding out to tire each other downThe swain mistrustless of his smutted face,While secret laughter titter'd round the placeThe bashful virgin's side-long looks of love,The matrons glance that would those looks reproveThese were thy charms, sweet village sports like these,With sweet succession, taught e'en toil to pleaseThese were thy bowers their cheerful influence shed,These were thy charms -- but all these charms are fled."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Life has been compared to a race, but the allusion improves by observing, that the most swift are usually the least manageable and the most likely to stray from the course. Great abilities have always been less serviceable to the possessors than moderate ones."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"I can't say whether we had more wit among us now than usual, but I am certain we had more laughing, which answered the end as well."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"I have known a German Prince with more titles than subjects, and a Spanish nobleman with more names than shirts."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"There is no arguing with him, for if his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"If one wishes to become rich they must appear rich."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Crime generally punishes itself."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"When a person has no need to borrow they find multitudes willing to lend."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"The doctor found, when she was dead, her last disorder mortal."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"But in his duty prompt at every call, he watched and wept, he prayed and felt for all."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Fortune is ever seen accompanying industry."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"When any one of our relations was found to be a person of a very bad character, a troublesome guest, or one we desired to get rid of, upon his leaving my house I ever took care to lend him a riding-coat, or a pair of boots, or sometimes a horse of small value, and I always had the satisfaction of finding he never came back to return them."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"In all the silent manliness of grief."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"If frugality were established in the state, and if our expenses were laid out to meet needs rather than superfluities of life, there might be fewer wants, and even fewer pleasures, but infinitely more happiness."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Hope, like the gleaming taper"
by Oliver Goldsmith
"The hours that we pass with happy prospects in view are more pleasing than those crowned with success."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, that one small head could carry all he knew."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"For he that fights and runs away, may live to fight another day, but he, who is in battle slain, can never rise and fight again."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Law grinds the poor, and rich men rule the law."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"The loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"The best way to make your audience laugh is to start laughing yourself."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"The life of man is a journey; a journey that must be traveled, however bad the roads or the accommodation."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Life at the greatest and best is but a froward child, that must be humored and coaxed a little till it falls asleep, and then all the care is over."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Who can direct when all pretend to know?"
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Vain, very vain is my search to find; that happiness which only centers in the mind."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"There are some faults so nearly allied to excellence that we can scarce weed out the vice without eradicating the virtue."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Some faults are so closely allied to qualities that it is difficult to weed out the vice without eradicating the virtue."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"With disadvantages enough to bring him to humility, a Scotsman is one of the proudest things alive."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"It seemed to me pretty plain, that they had more of love than matrimony in them."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"To what fortuitous occurrence do we not owe every pleasure and convenience of our lives."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Our pleasures are short, and can only charm at intervals; love is a method of protraction our greatest pleasure."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"The mind is ever ingenious in making its own distress."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"The first time I read an excellent book, it is to me just as if I had gained a new friend. When I read a book over I have perused before, it resembles the meeting with an old one."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"As writers become more numerous, it is natural for readers to become more indolent; whence must necessarily arise a desire of attaining knowledge with the greatest possible ease."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"He cast off his friends as a huntsman his pack, for he knew when he pleased he could whistle them back."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Ridicule has always been the enemy of enthusiasm, and the only worthy opponent to ridicule is success."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"She who makes her husband and her children happy, who reclaims the one from vice, and trains up the other to virtue, is a much greater character than the ladies described in romance, whose whole occupation is to murder mankind with shafts from their quiver or their eyes."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Romance and novel paint beauty in colors more charming than nature, and describe a happiness that humans never taste. How deceptive and destructive are those pictures of consummate bliss!"
by Oliver Goldsmith
"When lovely woman stoops to folly, and finds too late that men betray, what charm can soothe her melancholy, what art can wash her guilt away?"
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Aromatic plants bestow no spicy fragrance while they grow; but crush'd or trodden to the ground, diffuse their balmy sweets around."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines; and, I believe, Dorothy, you'll own I have been pretty fond of an old wife."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace the day's disasters in his morning face."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"A man who leaves home to mend himself and others is a philosopher; but he who goes from country to country, guided by the blind impulse of curiosity, is a vagabond."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"The jests of the rich are ever successful."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, where wealth accumulates, and men decay."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, and fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Wisdom makes a slow defense against trouble, though a sure one in the end."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Girls like to be played with, and rumpled a little too, sometimes."
by Oliver Goldsmith
"Let school-masters puzzle their brain. With grammar, and nonsense, and learning;..."
by Oliver Goldsmith


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