Top 348 Quotes & Sayings by Oliver Goldsmith - Page 3

Trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay.

Taste is the power of relishing or rejecting whatever is offered for the entertainment of the imagination.

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

And the weak soul, within itself unbless'd, Leans for all pleasure on another's breast.

I have found by experience that they who have spent all their lives in cities contract not only an effeminacy of habit, but of thinking.

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

See me, how calm I am. Ay, people are generally calm at the misfortunes of others.

Filial obedience is the first and greatest requisite of a state; by this we become good subjects to our emperors, capable of behaving with just subordination to our superiors, and grateful dependents on heaven; by this we become fonder of marriage, in order to be capable of exacting obedience from others in our turn; by this we become good magistrates, for early submission is the truest lesson to those who would learn to rule. By this the whole state may be said to resemble one family.

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

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

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

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

There is a greatness in being generous, and there is only simple justice in satisfying creditors. Generosity is the part of the soul raised above the vulgar.

A mind too vigorous and active, serves only to consume the body to which it is joined.

There is nothing so absurd or ridiculous that has not at some time been said by some philosopher.

Mortifications are often more painful than real calamities.

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.

Nobody with me at sea but myself.

One should not quarrel with a dog without a reason sufficient to vindicate one through all the courts of morality.

I find you want me to furnish you with argument and intellects too. No, sir, these, I protest you, are too hard for me.

Philosophy ... should not pretend to increase our present stock, but make us economists of what we are possessed of.

Well had the boding tremblers learn'd to trace The day's disasters in his morning face; Full well they laugh'd with counterfeited glee At all his jokes, for many a joke had he; Full well the busy whisper circling round Convey'd the dismal tidings when he frown'd. Yet was he kind, or if severe in aught, The love he bore to learning was in fault; The village all declar'd how much he knew, 'Twas certain he could write and cipher too.

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

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.

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

Absence, like death, sets a seal on the image of those we love: we cannot realize the intervening changes which time may have effected.

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.

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.

The person whose clothes are extremely fine I am too apt to consider as not being possessed of any superiority of fortune, but resembling those Indians who are found to wear all the gold they have in the world in a bob at the nose.

It has been remarked that almost every character which has excited either attention or pity has owed part of its success to merit, and part to a happy concurrence of circumstances in its favor. Had Caesar or Cromwell exchanged countries, the one might have been a sergeant and the other an exciseman.

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

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.

Life has been compared to a race, but the allusion improves by observing, that the most swift are usually the least manageable and the most likely to stray from the course. Great abilities have always been less serviceable to the possessors than moderate ones.

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.

It is not easy to recover an art when once lost.

While selfishness joins hands with no one of the virtues, benevolence is allied to them all.

Unequal combinations are always disadvantageous to the weaker side.

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.

Ridicule has even been the most powerful enemy of enthusiasm, and properly the only antagonist that can be opposed to it with success.

Near yonder copse, where once the garden smil'd, And still where many a garden flower grows wild, There, where a few torn shrubs the place disclose, The village preacher's modest mansion rose. A man he was to all the country dear, And passing rich with forty pounds a year; Remote from town's he ran his godly race, Nor e'er had chang'd nor wish'd to change his place; Unskilful he to fawn, or seek for power, By doctrines fashion'd to the varying hour; Far other aims his heart had learn'd to prize. More bent to raise the wretched than to rise.

And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, that one small head could carry all he knew.

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

As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm,- Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, Eternal sunshine settles on its head.

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

If we look round the world, there seem to be not above six distinct varieties in the human species, each of which is strongly marked, and speaks the kind seldom to have mixed with any other. But there is nothing in the shape, nothing in the faculties, that shows their coming from different originals; and the varieties of climate, of nourishment, and custom, are sufficient to produce every change.

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 destroy'd, can never be supplied.

Take a dollar from a thousand and it will be a thousand no more.

Crime generally punishes itself.

What cities, as great as this, have... promised themselves immortality! Posterity can hardly trace the situation of some. The sorrowful traveller wanders over the awful ruins of others... Here stood their citadel, but now grown over with weeds; there their senate-house, but now the haunt of every noxious reptile; temples and theatres stood here, now only an undistinguished heap of ruins.

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

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

Both wit and understanding are trifles without integrity.

Some fleeting good, that mocks me with the view.

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

I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing.

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

You will always find that those are most apt to boast of national merit, who have little or not merit of their own to depend on . . .

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

The nakedness of the indigent world may be clothed from the trimmings of the vain.

The ambitious are forever followed by adulation for they receive the most pleasure from flattery.