Oliver Goldsmith Quotes

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To husband out life's taper at the close, And keep the flames from wasting by repose.

Oliver Goldsmith
But me, not destined such delights to share,
My prime of life in wandering spent and care;
Impell'd, with steps unceasing, to pursue
Some fleeting good, that mocks me with the view
That, like the circle bounding earth and skies,
Allures from far, yet, as I follow, flies;
My fortune leads to traverse reams alone,
And find no spot of all the world my own.

Oliver Goldsmith
The more various our artificial necessities, the wider is our circle of pleasure; for all pleasure consists in obviating necessities as they rise; luxury, therefore, as it increases our wants, increases our capacity for happiness

Oliver Goldsmith
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.

Oliver Goldsmith
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.

Oliver Goldsmith
Politics resemble religion; attempting to divest either of ceremony is the most certain mode of bringing either into contempt.

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.

Oliver Goldsmith
I hate the French because they are all slaves and wear wooden shoes.

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

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

Oliver Goldsmith
No vernal blooms their torpid rocks array,
But winter lingering chills the lap of May;
No zephyr fondly sues the mountain's breast,
But meteors glare, and stormy glooms invest.

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

Oliver Goldsmith
The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.

Oliver Goldsmith
Is it that Nature, attentive to the preservation of mankind, increases our wishes to live, while she lessens our enjoyments, and as she robs the senses of every pleasure, equips imag-ination in the spoil?

Oliver Goldsmith
Like the tiger, that seldom desists from pursuing man after having once preyed upon human flesh, the reader who has once gratified his appetite with calumny makes ever after the most agreeable feast upon murdered reputations!

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.

Oliver Goldsmith
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.

Oliver Goldsmith
The person whose clothes are extremely fine I am too apt to consider as not being possessed of any superiority of fortune, but resembling those Indians who are found to wear all the gold they have in the world in a bob at the nose.

Oliver Goldsmith
See me, how calm I am.
Ay, people are generally calm at the misfortunes of others.

Oliver Goldsmith
Processions, cavalcades, and all that fund of gay frippery, furnished out by tailors, barbers, and tire-women, mechanically influence the mind into veneration; an emperor in his nightcap would not meet with half the respect of an emperor with a crown.

Oliver Goldsmith
Age, that lessens the enjoyment of life, increases our desire of living

Oliver Goldsmith
Quality and title have such allurements that hundreds are ready to give up all their own importance, to cringe, to flatter, to look little, and to pall every pleasure in constraint, merely to be among the great, though without the least hopes of improving their understanding or sharing their generosity. They might be happier among their equals.

Oliver Goldsmith
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.

Oliver Goldsmith
Eternal blessings crown my earliest friend,
And round his dwelling guardian saints attend.

Oliver Goldsmith
Titles and mottoes to books are like escutcheons and dignities in the hands of a king. The wise sometimes condescend to accept of them; but none but a fool would imagine them of any real importance. We ought to depend upon intrinsic merit, and not the slender helps of the title.

Oliver Goldsmith
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.

Oliver Goldsmith
Friendship is made up of esteem and pleasure; pity is composed of sorrow and contempt: the mind may for some time fluctuate between them, but it can never entertain both at once.

Oliver Goldsmith
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.

Oliver Goldsmith
To make a fine gentleman, several trades are required, but chiefly a barber.

Oliver Goldsmith
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.

Oliver Goldsmith