Oliver Goldsmith Quotes

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There is nothing magnanimous in bearing misfortunes with fortitude, when the whole world is looking on.... He who, without friends to encourage or even without hope to alleviate his misfortunes, can behave with tranquility and indifference, is truly great.

Oliver Goldsmith
And, ev'n while fashion's brightest arts decoy,
The heart distrusting asks, if this be joy.

Oliver Goldsmith
The greatest object in the universe, says a certain philosopher, is a good man struggling with adversity; yet there is still a greater, which is the good man who comes to relieve it.

Oliver Goldsmith
Whatever the skill of any country may be in the sciences, it is from its excellence in polite learning alone that it must expect a character from posterity.

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

Oliver Goldsmith
Vain, very vain, my weary search to find
That bliss which only centers in the mind.

Oliver Goldsmith
For just experience tells; in every soil,
That those that think must govern those that toil.

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
When I'm determined, I always listen to reason because it can then do me no harm.

Oliver Goldsmith
Let us draw upon Content for the deficiencies of fortune.

Oliver Goldsmith
They please, are pleased, they give to get esteem,
Till, seeming blest, they grow to what they seem.

Oliver Goldsmith
Careless their merits or their faults to scan,
His pity gave ere charity began.
Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride,
And e'en his failings leaned to Virtue's side.

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

Oliver Goldsmith
And in that town a dog was found,
As many dogs there be,
Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound,
And curs of low degree.

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

Oliver Goldsmith
[To Mr. Johnson] If you were to make little fishes talk, they would talk like whales.

Oliver Goldsmith
A nightcap decked his brows instead of bay,
A cap by night — a stocking all the day!

Oliver Goldsmith
Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain.

Oliver Goldsmith
A book may be very amusing with numerous errors, or it may be very dull without a single absurdity.

Oliver Goldsmith
He cast off his friends as a huntsman his pack,
For he knew when he pleased he could whistle them back.

Oliver Goldsmith
To a philosopher no circumstance, however trifling, is too minute.

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

Oliver Goldsmith
I... chose a wife, as she did her wedding gown, not for a fine glossy surface, but such qualities as would wear well.

Oliver Goldsmith
I was ever of the opinion that the honest man who married and brought up a large family, did more service than he who continued single, and only talked of population.

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

Oliver Goldsmith
In arguing too, the parson owned his skill,
For e'en though vanquished, he could argue still;
While words of learned length, and thundering sound
Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around;
And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew,
That one small head could carry all he knew.

Oliver Goldsmith
How wide the limits stand
Between a splendid and a happy land.

Oliver Goldsmith
For he who fights and runs away
May live to fight another day;
But he who is in battle slain
Can never rise and fight again.

Oliver Goldsmith
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!

Oliver Goldsmith
Ill fares the land, to hastening ills 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.

Oliver Goldsmith