Oliver Goldsmith Quotes

The malicious sneer is improperly called laughter.

Were I to be angry at men being fools, I could here find ample room for declamation; but, alas! I have been a fool myself; and why should I be angry with them for being something so natural to every child of humanity?

Teach erring man to spurn the rage of gain.

Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam,
His first best country ever is at home.

Ceremonies are different in every country, but true politeness is everywhere the same.

Mortifications are often more painful than real calamities.

Man wants but little here below, nor wants that little long.

Death when unmasked shows us a friendly face and is a terror only at a distance.

One man is born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and the other with a wooden ladle.

A man's own heart must ever be given to gain that of another.

Thus let me hold thee to my heart,
And every care resign:
And we shall never, never part,
My life-my all that's mine!

Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain, With grammar, and nonsense, and learning, Good liquor, I stoutly maintain, Gives genius a better discerning.

Alike all ages. Dames of ancient days Have led their children through the mirthful maze, And the gay grandsire, skill'd in gestic lore, Has frisk'd beneath the burden of threescore.

A volcano may be considered as a cannon of immense size.

Thus love is the most easy and agreeable, and gratitude the most humiliating, affection of the mind. We never reflect on the man we love without exulting in our choice, while he who has bound us to him by benefits alone rises to our ideas as a person to whom we have in some measure forfeited our freedom.

Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see,
My heart untravelled, fondly turns to thee;
Still to my brother turns, with ceaseless pain,
And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.

Good people all, with one accord, Lament for Madam Blaize, Who never wanted a good word From those who spoke her praise.

The very pink of perfection.

Her modest looks the cottage might adorn, Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn.

Little things are great to little men.

Of all kinds of ambition, that which pursues poetical fame is the wildest

Our pleasures are short, and can only charm at intervals; love is a method of protraction our greatest pleasure.

The nakedness of the indignant world may be cloathed from the trimmings of the vain.

In all the silent manliness of grief.

I have visited many countries, and have been in cities without number, yet never did I enter a town which could not produce ten or twelve little great men; all fancying themselves known to the rest of the world, and complimenting each other upon their extensive reputation.

The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.

Logicians have but ill defined As rational the human mind; Reason, they say, belongs to man, But let them prove it if they can.

He makes a very handsome corpse and becomes his coffin prodigiously.

Surely the best way to meet the enemy is head on in the field and not wait till they plunder our very homes.

There are but few talents requisite to become a popular preacher; for the people are easily pleased if they perceive any endeavors in the orator to please them. The meanest qualifications will work this effect if the preacher sincerely sets about it.

O friendship! thou fond soother of the human breast, to thee we fly in every calamity; to thee the wretched seek for succor; on thee the care-tired son of misery fondly relies; from thy kind assistance the unfortunate always hopes relief, and may be sure of
disappointment.

Aspiring beggary is wretchedness itself.

Tenderness is a virtue.

By every remove I only drag a greater length of chain.

There is unspeakable pleasure attending the life of a voluntary student.

Philosophy ... should not pretend to increase our present stock, but make us economists of what we are possessed of.

And e'en while fashion's brightest arts decoy, The heart distrusting asks if this be joy.

The volumes of antiquity, like medals, may very well serve to amuse the curious, but the works of the moderns, like the current coin of a kingdom, are much better for immediate use.

Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no fibs.

Blame where you must, be candid where you can, And be each critic the Good-natured Man.

I have found by experience that they who have spent all their lives in cities contract not only an effeminacy of habit, but of thinking.

Fear guides more to their duty than gratitude; for one man who is virtuous from the love of virtue, from the obligation he thinks he lies under to the Giver of all, there are ten thousand who are good only from their apprehension of punishment.

What if in Scotland's wilds we viel'd our head, Where tempests whistle round the sordid bed; Where the rug's two-fold use we might display, By night a blanket, and a plaid by day.

True genius walks along a line, and, perhaps, our greatest pleasure is in seeing it so often near falling, without being ever actually down.

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, I see the lords of humankind pass by.

He cast off his friends as a huntsman his pack, For he knew when he pleas'd he could whistle them back.

If we do not find happiness in the present moment, in what shall we find it?

Wisdom makes a slow defense against trouble, though a sure one in the end.

Every want that stimulates the breast becomes a source of pleasure when redressed.

Girls like to be played with, and rumpled a little too, sometimes.

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.

All is not gold that glitters,
Pleasure seems sweet, but proves a glass of bitters

I find you want me to furnish you with argument and intellects too. No, sir, these, I protest you, are too hard for me.

The man recovered of the bite, The dog it was that died.

Offences are easily pardoned where there is love at the bottom.

Vain, very vain is my search to find; that happiness which only centers in the mind.

Whatever be the motives which induce men to write,
whether avarice or fame,
the country becomes more wise and happy in which they most serve for instructors.

Ridicule has always been the enemy of enthusiasm, and the only worthy opponent to ridicule is success.

I fretted myself about the mistakes of government, like other people; but finding myself every day grow more angry, and the government growing no better, I left it to mend itself.

I love everything that is old; old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.

The way to acquire lasting esteem is not by the fewness of a writer's faults, but the greatness of his beauties, and our noblest works are generally most replete with both.

Be not affronted at a joke. If one throw salt at thee, thou wilt receive no harm, unless thou art raw.

And as a bird each fond endearment tries To tempt its new-fledg'd offspring to the skies, He tried each art, reprov'd each dull delay, Allur'd to brighter worlds, and led the way.

An Englishman fears contempt more than death.

Write how you want, the critic shall show the world you could have written better.

If the soul be happily disposed, every thing becomes capable of affording entertainment, and distress will almost want a name.

The volume of Nature is the book of knowledge.

Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse.

Here let me sit in sorrow for mankind.

There is a greatness in being generous, and there is only simple justice in satisfying creditors. Generosity is the part of the soul raised above the vulgar.

As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm,- Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, Eternal sunshine settles on its head.

A silent address is the genuine eloquence of sincerity.

Pity, though it may often relieve, is but, at best, a short-lived passion, and seldom affords distress more than transitory assistance; with some it scarce lasts from the first impulse till the hand can be put into the pocket.

Those who place their affections at first on trifles for amusement, will find these trifles become at last their most serious concerns.

But times are alter'd; trade's unfeeling train
Usurp the land, and dispossess the swain;
Along the lawn, where scatter'd hamlets rose,
Unwieldy wealth and cumbrous pomp repose.

You, that are going to be married, think things can never be done too fast: but we that are old, and know what we are about, must elope methodically, madam.

Nobody with me at sea but myself.

Let observation with observant view,
Observe mankind from China to Peru.

Near yonder copse, where once the garden smil'd,
And still where many a garden flower grows wild,
There, where a few torn shrubs the place disclose,
The village preacher's modest mansion rose.
A man he was to all the country dear,
And passing rich with forty pounds a year;
Remote from town's he ran his godly race,
Nor e'er had chang'd nor wish'd to change his place;
Unskilful he to fawn, or seek for power,
By doctrines fashion'd to the varying hour;
Far other aims his heart had learn'd to prize.
More bent to raise the wretched than to rise.

There are a hundred faults in this Thing and a hundred things might be said to prove them beauties.

All the bloomy flush of life is fled.

We seldom speak of the virtue which we have, but much oftener of that which we lack.

Blest be those feasts, with simple plenty crowned, Where all the ruddy family around Laugh at the jests or pranks that never fail Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale.

I learn several great truths; as that it is impossible to see into the ways of futurity, that punishment always attends the villain, that love is the fond soother of the human breast.

The life of a scholar seldom abounds with adventure.

How blest is he who crowns in shades like these A youth of labour with an age of ease!

Pity and friendship are two passions incompatible with each other.

It has been remarked that almost every character which has excited either attention or pity has owed part of its success to merit, and part to a happy concurrence of circumstances in its favor. Had Caesar or Cromwell exchanged countries, the one might have been a sergeant and the other an exciseman.

As few subjects are more interesting to society, so few have been more frequently written upon than the education of youth.

The hours we pass with happy prospects in view are more pleasing than those crowded with fruition.

The youth who follows his appetites too soon seizes the cup, before it has received its best ingredients, and by anticipating his pleasures, robs the remaining parts of life of their share, so that his eagerness only produces manhood of imbecility and an age of pain.

It has been a thousand times observed, and I must observe it once more, that the hours we pass with happy prospects in view are more pleasing than those crowned with fruition.

As ten millions of circles can never make a square, so the united voice of myriads cannot lend the smallest foundation to falsehood.

the laws govern the poor, and the rich govern the law

Here lies David Garrick, describe me who can, An abridgment of all that was pleasant in man.

The little mind who loves itself, will wr'te and think with the vulgar; but the great mind will be bravely eccentric, and scorn the beaten road, from universal benevolence.

The sports of children satisfy the child.

Measures, not men, have always been my mark.

Fortune is ever seen accompanying industry.