Oliver Goldsmith - The Vicar of Wakefield (1766)

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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
Turn, gentle Hermit of the Dale,
And guide my lonely way
To where yon taper cheers the vale
With hospitable ray.

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

Oliver Goldsmith
We sometimes had those little rubs which Providence sends to enhance the value of its favors.

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
Let us draw upon Content for the deficiencies of fortune.

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

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
The more enormous our wealth, the more extensive our fears, all our possessions are paled up with new edicts every day, and hung round with gibbets to scare every invader.

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

Oliver Goldsmith
I find you want me to furnish you with argument and intellects too.

Oliver Goldsmith
That virtue which requires to be ever guarded is scarce worth the sentinel.

Oliver Goldsmith
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.

Oliver Goldsmith
The fortunate circumstances of our lives are generally found, at last, to be of our own producing.

Oliver Goldsmith
The work of eradicating crimes is not by making punishment familiar, but formidable.

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

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
The premises being thus settled, I proceed to observe that the concatenation of self-existence, proceeding in a reciprocal duplicate ratio, naturally produces a problematical dialogism, which in some measure proves that the essence of spirituality may be referred to the second predicable.

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

Oliver Goldsmith
Wisdom makes but a slow defense against trouble, though at last a sure one.

Oliver Goldsmith
It seemed to be pretty plain, that they had more of love than matrimony in them.

Oliver Goldsmith
All our adventures were by the fire-side, and all our migrations from the blue bed to the brown.

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?

Oliver Goldsmith
And what is friendship but a name,
A charm that lulls to sleep,
A shade that follows wealth or fame,
And leaves the wretch to weep?

Oliver Goldsmith
They would talk of nothing but high life, and high-lived company, with other fashionable topics, such as pictures, taste, Shakespeare, and the musical glasses.

Oliver Goldsmith
Man wants but little here below,
Nor wants that little long.

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

Oliver Goldsmith
Taught by that Power that pities me,
I learn to pity them.

Oliver Goldsmith