Top 100 Oliver Goldsmith Quotes

#1. ... 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

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #22444
#2. See me, how calm I am.
Ay, people are generally calm at the misfortunes of others.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #39820
#3. Whenever you see a gaming table be sure to know fortune is not there. Rather she is always in the company of industry.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #58057
#4. 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

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #75754
#5. Who pepper'd the highest was surest to please.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #99790
#6. Teach erring man to spurn the rage of gain.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #152139
#7. The youth who follows his appetites too soon seizes the cup, before it has received its best ingredients, and by anticipating his pleasures, robs the remaining parts of life of their share, so that his eagerness only produces manhood of imbecility and an age of pain.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #155794
#8. The life of a scholar seldom abounds with adventure.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #159209
#9. With disadvantages enough to bring him to humility, a Scotsman is one of the proudest things alive.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #163863
#10. The little mind who loves itself, will wr'te and think with the vulgar; but the great mind will be bravely eccentric, and scorn the beaten road, from universal benevolence.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #169855
#11. Thus 'tis with all; their chief and constant care Is to seem everything but what they are.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #170632
#12. At this he laughed, and so did we: the jests of the rich are ever successful.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #192330
#13. Philosophy ... should not pretend to increase our present stock, but make us economists of what we are possessed of.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #247743
#14. Mortifications are often more painful than real calamities.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #248838
#15. The world is like a vast sea: mankind like a vessel sailing on its tempestuous bosom ... [T]he sciences serve us for oars.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #286180
#16. It seemed to me pretty plain, that they had more of love than matrimony in them.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #287135
#17. If frugality were established in the state, and if our expenses were laid out to meet needs rather than superfluities of life, there might be fewer wants, and even fewer pleasures, but infinitely more happiness.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #310339
#18. Death when unmasked shows us a friendly face and is a terror only at a distance.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #316458
#19. Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #357841
#20. Pity and friendship are two passions incompatible with each other.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #361168
#21. Whatever be the motives which induce men to write,
whether avarice or fame,
the country becomes more wise and happy in which they most serve for instructors.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #409267
#22. Taste is the power of relishing or rejecting whatever is offered for the entertainment of the imagination.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #411325
#23. To aim at excellence, our reputation, and friends, and all must be ventured; to aim at the average we run no risk and provide little service.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #416161
#24. Let observation with observant view,
Observe mankind from China to Peru.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #423414
#25. He who fights and runs away
May live to fight another day;
But he who is battle slain
Can never rise to fight again

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #430755
#26. True generosity is a duty as indispensably necessary as those imposed upon us by the law. It is a rule imposed upon us by reason, which should be the sovereign law of a rational being.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #448076
#27. Blest be those feasts, with simple plenty crowned, Where all the ruddy family around Laugh at the jests or pranks that never fail Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #477821
#28. If one wishes to become rich they must appear rich.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #526356
#29. Politeness is the result of good sense and good nature.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #565202
#30. There are but few talents requisite to become a popular preacher; for the people are easily pleased if they perceive any endeavors in the orator to please them. The meanest qualifications will work this effect if the preacher sincerely sets about it.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #567076
#31. 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

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #576969
#32. Fine declamation does not consist in flowery periods, delicate allusions of musical cadences, but in a plain, open, loose style, where the periods are long and obvious, where the same thought is often exhibited in several points of view.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #660354
#33. Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #661789
#34. Unequal combinations are always disadvantageous to the weaker side.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #666021
#35. Persecution is a tribute the great must always pay for preeminence.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #674871
#36. Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, I see the lords of humankind pass by.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #684230
#37. The bashful virgin's sidelong looks of love.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #710319
#38. The mind is ever ingenious in making its own distress.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #734723
#39. 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

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #739815
#40. Whichever way we look the prospect is disagreeable. Behind, we have left pleasures we shall never enjoy, and therefore regret; and before, we see pleasures which we languish to possess, and are consequently uneasy till we possess them.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #744212
#41. 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

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #761395
#42. Ceremonies are different in every country, but true politeness is everywhere the same.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #775368
#43. I love everything that is old; old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #846581
#44. The hours we pass with happy prospects in view are more pleasing than those crowded with fruition.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #859858
#45. A boy will learn more true wisdom in a public school in a year than by a private education in five. It is not from masters, but from their equals, that youth learn a knowledge of the world.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #864215
#46. In all my wanderings round this world of care,
In all my griefs-and God has given my share-
I still had hopes my latest hours to crown,
Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #868853
#47. The miscellaneous poetry of this age is nothing like the last; it is very poor.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #870959
#48. To the last moment of his breath, On hope the wretch relies; And even the pang preceding death Bids expectation rise.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #917101
#49. They may talk of a comet, or a burning mountain, or some such bagatelle; but to me a modest woman, dressed out in all her finery, is the most tremendous object of the whole creation.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #920369
#50. [T]here are depths of thousands of miles which are hidden from our inquiry. The only tidings we have from those unfathomable regions are by means of volcanoes, those burning mountains that seem to discharge their materials from the lowest abysses of the earth.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #925357
#51. The work of eradicating crimes is not by making punishment familiar, but formidable.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #965649
#52. Don't let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #972362
#53. Blame where you must, be candid where you can, And be each critic the Good-natured Man.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #987543
#54. The ambitious are forever followed by adulation for they receive the most pleasure from flattery.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1000989
#55. It is not easy to recover an art when once lost.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1032901
#56. I fancy the character of a poet is in every country the same,
fond of enjoying the present, careless of the future; his conversation that of a man of sense, his actions those of a fool.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1048491
#57. Where wealth accumulates, men decay.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1060352
#58. A kind and gentle heart he had, To comfort friends and foes; The naked every day he clad When he put on his clothes.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1088339
#59. And e'en while fashion's brightest arts decoy, The heart distrusting asks if this be joy.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1113533
#60. If the soul be happily disposed, every thing becomes capable of affording entertainment, and distress will almost want a name.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1123440
#61. And learn the luxury of doing good.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1136605
#62. All that a husband or wife really wants is to be pitied a little, praised a little, and appreciated a little.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1182252
#63. There are some faults so nearly allied to excellence that we can scarce weed out the vice without eradicating the virtue.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1203000
#64. Were I to be angry at men being fools, I could here find ample room for declamation; but, alas! I have been a fool myself; and why should I be angry with them for being something so natural to every child of humanity?

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1210991
#65. Aromatic plants bestow no spicy fragrance while they grow; but crush'd or trodden to the ground, diffuse their balmy sweets around.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1222544
#66. We had no revolutions to fear, nor fatigues to undergo; all our adventures were by the fireside, and all our migrations from the blue bed to the brown.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1222922
#67. Amid thy desert-walks the lapwing flies, And tires their echoes with unvaried cries.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1225814
#68. All the bloomy flush of life is fled.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1253729
#69. The heart of every man lies open to the shafts of correction if the archer can take proper aim.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1305265
#70. Her modest looks the cottage might adorn, Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1305864
#71. I have known a German Prince with more titles than subjects, and a Spanish nobleman with more names than shirts.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1311059
#72. In two opposite opinions, if one be perfectly reasonable, the other can't be perfectly right.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1355577
#73. Wept o'er his wounds, or tales of sorrow done, Shoulder'd his crutch, and shew'd how fields were won.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1364435
#74. So the loud torrent, and the whirlwind's roar, But bind him to his native mountains more.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1367946
#75. The folly of others is ever most ridiculous to those who are themselves most foolish.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1399231
#76. 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

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1401530
#77. Indeed, Constance, you amaze me. Such a girl as you want jewels! It will be time enough for jewels, my dear, twenty years hence, when your beauty begins to want repairs.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1423985
#78. 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

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1428290
#79. The wretch condemn'd with life to part,
Still, still on hope relies;
And every pang that rends the heart
Bids expectation rise.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1429332
#80. Fortune is ever seen accompanying industry.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1474127
#81. Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam,
His first best country ever is at home.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1478828
#82. 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

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1501987
#83. Every acknowledgment of gratitude is a circumstance of humiliation; and some are found to submit to frequent mortifications of this kind, proclaiming what obligations they owe, merely because they think it in some measure cancels the debt.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1504661
#84. Age, that lessens the enjoyment of life, increases our desire of living

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1564734
#85. Wealth accumulates, and men decay.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1584504
#86. The bounds of a man's knowledge are easily concealed, if he has but prudence.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1646557
#87. 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

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1662453
#88. Wisdom makes a slow defense against trouble, though a sure one in the end.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1672501
#89. The genteel thing is the genteel thing any time, if as be that a gentleman bees in a concatenation accordingly.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1688447
#90. To what fortuitous occurrence do we not owe every pleasure and convenience of our lives.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1696555
#91. O friendship! thou fond soother of the human breast, to thee we fly in every calamity; to thee the wretched seek for succor; on thee the care-tired son of misery fondly relies; from thy kind assistance the unfortunate always hopes relief, and may be sure of
disappointment.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1728231
#92. In all the silent manliness of grief.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1732671
#93. It has been well observed that few are better qualified to give others advice than those who have taken the least of it themselves.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1776836
#94. Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1786396
#95. But winter lingering chills the lap of May.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1791900
#96. Careless their merits or their faults to scan, His pity gave ere charity began. Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride, And even his failings lean'd to Virtue's side.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1808842
#97. A man he was to all the country dear, And passing rich with forty pounds a year.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1817952
#98. Politics resemble religion; attempting to divest either of ceremony is the most certain mode of bringing either into contempt.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1845015
#99. Every want that stimulates the breast becomes a source of pleasure when redressed.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1851832
#100. Alike all ages. Dames of ancient days Have led their children through the mirthful maze, And the gay grandsire, skill'd in gestic lore, Has frisk'd beneath the burden of threescore.

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes #1872977

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