Oliver Goldsmith

In all the silent manliness of grief.

— Oliver Goldsmith

O Luxury! thou curst by Heaven's decree!

— Oliver Goldsmith

Thou source of all my bliss, and all my woe,That found'st me poor at first, and keep'st me so.

— Oliver Goldsmith

In my time, the follies of the town crept slowly among us, but now they travel faster than a stagecoach.

— Oliver Goldsmith

I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.

— Oliver Goldsmith

The very pink of perfection.

— Oliver Goldsmith

The genteel thing is the genteel thing any time, if as be that a gentleman bees in a concatenation accordingly.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain,Gives genus a better discerning.

— Oliver Goldsmith

I'll be with you in the squeezing of a lemon.

— Oliver Goldsmith

A modest woman, dressed out in all her finery, is the most tremendous object of the whole creation.

— Oliver Goldsmith

The first blow is half the battle.

— Oliver Goldsmith

We are the boysWhere the thundering cannons roar.

— Oliver Goldsmith

They liked the book the better the more it made them cry.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Travellers, George, must pay in all places: the only difference is, that in good inns, you pay dearly for your luxuries, and in bad inns you are fleeced and starved.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Oh sir! I must not tell my age. They say women and music should never be dated.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Baw! Damme, but I'll fight you both, one after the other!With baskets.

— Oliver Goldsmith

We modest Gentlemen don't want for much success among the women.

— Oliver Goldsmith

A great source of calamity lies in regret and anticipation; therefore a person is wise who thinks of the present alone, regardless of the past or future.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Our Garrick's a salad; for in him we seeOil, vinegar, sugar, and saltness agree!

— Oliver Goldsmith

Who mix'd reason with pleasure, and wisdom with mirth:If he had any faults, he has left us in doubt.

— Oliver Goldsmith

His conduct still right, with his argument wrong.

— Oliver Goldsmith

All that a husband or wife really wants is to be pitied a little, praised a little, and appreciated a little.

— Oliver Goldsmith

A flattering painter, who made it his careTo draw men as they ought to be, not as they are.

— Oliver Goldsmith

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

— Oliver Goldsmith

As a wit, if not first, in the very first line.

— Oliver Goldsmith

On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting;'Twas only that when he was off he was acting.

— 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

Who peppered the highest was surest to please.

— Oliver Goldsmith

When he talked of their Raphaels, Correggios, and stuff,He shifted his trumpet and only took snuff.

— Oliver Goldsmith

The best-humour'd man, with the worst-humour'd Muse.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Pity and friendship are two passions incompatible with each other.

— Oliver Goldsmith

A great source of calamity lies in regret and anticipation; therefore a person is wise who thinks of the present alone, regardless of the past or future.

— Oliver Goldsmith

I love everything that's old, - old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Friendship is a disinterested commerce between equals; love, an abject intercourse between tyrants and slaves.

— Oliver Goldsmith

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

— Oliver Goldsmith

Men may be very learned, and yet very miserable; it is easy to be a deep geometrician, or a sublime astronomer, but very difficult to be a good man. I esteem, therefore, the traveller who instructs the heart, but despise him who only indulges the imagination. 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 only a vagabond.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Such dainties to them, their health it might hurt;It's like sending them ruffles, when wanting a shirt.

— Oliver Goldsmith

There is no arguing with Johnson: for if his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it.

— Oliver Goldsmith

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

— Oliver Goldsmith

You may all go to pot.

— Oliver Goldsmith

For he who fights and runs awayCan never rise and fight again.

— Oliver Goldsmith

One writer, for instance, excels at a plan or a title page, another works away at the body of the book, and a third is a dab at an index.

— Oliver Goldsmith

The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them.

— Oliver Goldsmith

As writers become more numerous, it is natural for readers to become more indolent.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Good people all, with one acord,From those who spoke her praise.

— Oliver Goldsmith

As aromatic plants bestowDiffuse their balmy sweets around.

— Oliver Goldsmith

That strain once more; it bids remembrance rise.

— Oliver Goldsmith

O Memory! thou fond deceiver.

— Oliver Goldsmith

To the last moment of his breathBids expectation rise.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Hope, like the gleaming taper's light,Emits a brighter ray.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow,Or by the lazy Scheldt, or wandering Po.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see,And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.

— Oliver Goldsmith

And learn the luxury of doing good.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Some fleeting good, that mocks me with the view.

— Oliver Goldsmith

These little things are great to little man.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Creation's heir, the world, the world is mine!

— Oliver Goldsmith

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

— Oliver Goldsmith

Where wealth and freedom reign contentment fails,And honor sinks where commerce long prevails.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.

— Oliver Goldsmith

The canvas glow'd beyond ev'n Nature warm,The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.

— Oliver Goldsmith

By sports like these are all their cares beguil'd;The sports of children satisfy the child.

— Oliver Goldsmith

But winter lingering chills the lap of May.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Cheerful at morn, he wakes from short repose,Breasts the keen air, and carols as he goes.

— Oliver Goldsmith

So the loud torrent and the whirlwind's roarBut bind him to his native mountains more.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Unknown those powers that raise the soul to flame,Unquenched by want, unfanned by strong desire.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Alike all ages. Dames of ancient daysHas frisk'd beneath the burden of threescore.

— Oliver Goldsmith

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

— Oliver Goldsmith

Where wealth accumulates, men decay.

— Oliver Goldsmith

To men of other minds my fancy flies,Where the broad ocean leans against the land.

— Oliver Goldsmith

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

— Oliver Goldsmith

Law grinds the poor, and rich men rule the law.

— Oliver Goldsmith

The land of scholars and the nurse of arms.

— Oliver Goldsmith

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

— Oliver Goldsmith

Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Forc'd from their homes, a melancholy train,And Niagara stuns with thundering sound.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Vain, very vain, my weary search to findThat bliss which only centers in the mind.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Luke's iron crown, and Damien's bed of steel.

— Oliver Goldsmith

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

— 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

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

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

— Oliver Goldsmith

Handsome is that handsome does.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Let us draw upon Content for the deficiencies of fortune.

— Oliver Goldsmith

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

— 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

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

— Oliver Goldsmith

Turn, gentle Hermit of the Dale,With hospitable ray.

— Oliver Goldsmith

No flocks that range the valley freeAnd water from the spring.

— Oliver Goldsmith

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

— Oliver Goldsmith

And what is friendship but a name,And leaves the wretch to weep?

— Oliver Goldsmith

The sigh that rends thy constant heartShall break thy Edwin's too.

— Oliver Goldsmith

By the living jingo, she was all of a muck of sweat.

— 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

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

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

— Oliver Goldsmith

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

— Oliver Goldsmith

A kind and gentle heart he had,When he put on his clothes.

— Oliver Goldsmith

And in that town a dog was found,And curs of low degree.

— Oliver Goldsmith

The dog, to gain some private ends,Went mad, and bit the man.

— Oliver Goldsmith

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

— Oliver Goldsmith

To what happy accident is it that we owe so unexpected a visit?

— Oliver Goldsmith

To what fortuitous occurrence do we not owe every pleasure and convenience of our lives.

— Oliver Goldsmith

You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.

— Oliver Goldsmith

When lovely woman stoops to folly,What art can wash her guilt away?

— Oliver Goldsmith

The only art her guilt to cover,And wring his bosom, is — to die.

— Oliver Goldsmith

This same philosophy is a good horse in the stable, but an arrant jade on a journey.

— Oliver Goldsmith

He calls his extravagance, generosity; and his trusting everybody, universal benevolence.

— Oliver Goldsmith

All his faults are such that one loves him still the better for them.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Friendship is a disinterested commerce between equals; love, an abject intercourse between tyrants and slaves.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Don't let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Measures, not men, have always been my mark.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain.

— Oliver Goldsmith

The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade,For talking age and whispering lovers made.

— Oliver Goldsmith

The bashful virgin's sidelong looks of love,The matron's glance that would those looks reprove.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,When once destroyed, can never be supplied.

— Oliver Goldsmith

His best companions, innocence and health;And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.

— Oliver Goldsmith

How happy he who crowns in shades like these,A youth of labour with an age of ease.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Bends to the grave with unperceived decay,His heaven commences ere the world be past.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Hope is such a bait, it covers any hook.

— Oliver Goldsmith

The best way to make your audience laugh is to start laughing yourself.

— Oliver Goldsmith

The watchdog's voice that bayed the whispering wind,And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.

— Oliver Goldsmith

A man he was to all the country dear,And passing rich with forty pounds a year.

— 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

Careless their merits or their faults to scan,And e'en his failings leaned to Virtue's side.

— Oliver Goldsmith

And, as a bird each fond endearment triesAllured to brighter worlds, and led the way.

— Oliver Goldsmith

A great source of calamity lies in regret and anticipation; therefore a person is wise who thinks of the present alone, regardless of the past or future.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway,And fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Even children followed with endearing wile,And plucked his gown, to share the good man's smile.

— Oliver Goldsmith

As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form,Eternal sunshine settles on its head.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Well had the boding tremblers learn'd to trace'T was certain he could write and cipher too.

— Oliver Goldsmith

In arguing too, the parson owned his skill,That one small head could carry all he knew.

— Oliver Goldsmith

Where village statesmen talked with looks profound,And news much older than their ale went round.

— Oliver Goldsmith

The whitewashed wall, the nicely sanded floor,A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day.

— Oliver Goldsmith

The twelve good rules, the royal game of goose.

— Oliver Goldsmith

To me more dear, congenial to my heart,One native charm, than all the gloss of art.

— Oliver Goldsmith

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

— Oliver Goldsmith

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

— Oliver Goldsmith

Through torrid tracts with fainting steps they go,Where wild Altama murmurs to their woe.

— Oliver Goldsmith