Oliver Goldsmith Quotes

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

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

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

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

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

Oliver Goldsmith
Alas! the joys that fortune brings
Are trifling, and decay,
And those who prize the trifling things,
More trifling still than they.

Oliver Goldsmith
Wept o'er his wounds, or tales of sorrow done,
Shoulder'd his crutch, and shew'd how fields were won.

Oliver Goldsmith
Fancy restrained may be compared to a fountain, which plays highest by diminishing the aperture.

Oliver Goldsmith
In proportion as society refines, new books must ever become more necessary.

Oliver Goldsmith
Solo natura subest - out of the soil comes life; and in the greenness of the earth is man's redemption.

Oliver Goldsmith
The Europeans are themselves blind who describe fortune without sight. No first-rate beauty ever had finer eyes, or saw more clearly. They who have no other trade but seeking their fortune need never hope to find her; coquette-like, she flies from her close pursuers, and at last fixes on the plodding mechanic who stays at home and minds his business.

Oliver Goldsmith
This is that eloquence the ancients represented as lightning, bearing down every opposer; this the power which has turned whole assemblies into astonishment, admiration and awe- - that is described by the torrent, the flame, and every other instance of irresistible impetuosity.

Oliver Goldsmith
The bounds of a man's knowledge are easily concealed, if he has but prudence.

Oliver Goldsmith
Could a man live by it, it were not unpleasant employment to be a poet.

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

Oliver Goldsmith
I have known a German Prince with more titles than subjects, and a Spanish nobleman with more names than shirts.

Oliver Goldsmith
Books are necessary to correct the vices of the polite; but those vices are ever changing, and the antidote should be changed accordingly should still be new.

Oliver Goldsmith
Blest that abode, where want and pain repair, And every stranger finds a ready chair.

Oliver Goldsmith
To be poor, and to seem poor, is a certain method never to rise.

Oliver Goldsmith
Popular glory is a perfect coquette; her lovers must toil, feel every inquietude, indulge every caprice, and perhaps at last be jilted into the bargain. True glory, on the other hand, resembles a woman of sense; her admirers must play no tricks. They feel no great anxiety, for they are sure in the end of being rewarded in proportion to their merit.

Oliver Goldsmith
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.

Oliver Goldsmith
The folly of others is ever most ridiculous to those who are themselves most foolish.

Oliver Goldsmith
The wisdom of the ignorant somewhat resembles the instinct of animals; it is diffused in but a very narrow sphere, but within the circle it acts with vigor, uniformity, and success.

Oliver Goldsmith
Unequal combinations are always disadvantageous to the weaker side.

Oliver Goldsmith
As boys should be educated with temperance, so the first greatest lesson that should be taught them is to admire frugality. It is by the exercise of this virtue alone they can ever expect to be useful members of society.

Oliver Goldsmith
Nothing is so contemptible as that affectation of wisdom, which some display, by universal incredulity.

Oliver Goldsmith
Villainy, when detected, never gives up, but boldly adds impudence to imposture.

Oliver Goldsmith