Top 348 Quotes & Sayings by Oliver Goldsmith - Page 5

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.

And fools who came to scoff remain'd to pray.

Politics resemble religion; attempting to divest either of ceremony is the most certain mode of bringing either into contempt.

As in some Irish houses, where things are so-so, One gammon of bacon hangs up for a show; But, for eating a rasher of what they take pride in, They'd as soon think of eating the pan it is fried in.

Pity, though it may often relieve, is but, at best, a short-lived passion, and seldom affords distress more than transitory assistance; with some it scarce lasts from the first impulse till the hand can be put into the pocket.

No vernal blooms their torpid rocks array, But winter lingering chills the lap of May; No zephyr fondly sues the mountain's breast, But meteors glare, and stormy glooms invest.

Processions, cavalcades, and all that fund of gay frippery, furnished out by tailors, barbers, and tire-women, mechanically influence the mind into veneration; an emperor in his nightcap would not meet with half the respect of an emperor with a crown.

The Europeans are themselves blind who describe fortune without sight. No first-rate beauty ever had finer eyes, or saw more clearly. They who have no other trade but seeking their fortune need never hope to find her; coquette-like, she flies from her close pursuers, and at last fixes on the plodding mechanic who stays at home and minds his business.

We may affirm of Mr. Buffon, that which has been said of the chemists of old; though he may have failed in attaining his principal aim, of establishing a theory, yet he has brought together such a multitude of facts relative to the history of the earth, and the nature of its fossil productions, that curiosity finds ample compensation, even while it feels the want of conviction.

Like the tiger, that seldom desists from pursuing man after having once preyed upon human flesh, the reader who has once gratified his appetite with calumny makes ever after the most agreeable feast upon murdered reputations!

Wit generally succeeds more from being happily addressed than from its native poignancy. A jest, calculated to spread at a gaming-table, may be received with, perfect indifference should it happen to drop in a mackerel-boat.

Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie.

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

Quality and title have such allurements that hundreds are ready to give up all their own importance, to cringe, to flatter, to look little, and to pall every pleasure in constraint, merely to be among the great, though without the least hopes of improving their understanding or sharing their generosity. They might be happier among their equals.

But winter lingering chills the lap of May.

Religion does what philosophy could never do; it shows the equal dealings of Heaven to the happy and the unhappy, and levels all human enjoyments to nearly the same standard. It gives to both rich and poor the same happiness hereafter, and equal hopes to aspire after it.

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

Who pepper'd the highest was surest to please.

Eternal blessings crown my earliest friend, And round his dwelling guardian saints attend.

A silent address is the genuine eloquence of sincerity.

The life of a scholar seldom abounds with adventure.

The pictures placed for ornament and use, The twelve good rules, the royal game of goose.

A French woman is a perfect architect in dress: she never, with Gothic ignorance, mixes the orders; she never tricks out a snobby Doric shape with Corinthian finery; or, to speak without metaphor, she conforms to general fashion only when it happens not to be repugnant to private beauty.

It world be well had we more misers than we have among us.

Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace the day's disasters in his morning face.

What we say of a thing that has just come in fashion And that which we do with the dead, Is the name of the honestest man in the nation: What more of a man can be said?

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

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

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.

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

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

The very pink of perfection.

Wisdom makes a slow defense against trouble, though a sure one in the end.

Alas! the joys that fortune brings Are trifling, and decay, And those who prize the trifling things, More trifling still than they.

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.

If you don't ask me questions, I can't give you an untrue answer.

And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.

Why was this heart of mine formed with so much sensibility! Or why not my fortune adapted to its impulses! Tenderness without a capacity of relieving only makes the man who feels it more wretched than the object which sues for assistance.

I have visited many countries, and have been in cities without number, yet never did I enter a town which could not produce ten or twelve little great men; all fancying themselves known to the rest of the world, and complimenting each other upon their extensive reputation.

The heart of every man lies open to the shafts of correction if the archer can take proper aim.

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

Our pleasures are short, and can only charm at intervals; love is a method of protraction our greatest pleasure.

O Luxury! thou curst by Heaven's decree!

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

All the bloomy flush of life is fled.

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

As for murmurs, mother, we grumble a little now and then, to be sure; but there's no love lost between us.

The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.

All the sciences are, in some measure, linked with each other, and before the one is ended, the other begins.

The bashful virgin's sidelong looks of love.

A volcano may be considered as a cannon of immense size.

He makes a very handsome corpse and becomes his coffin prodigiously.

True generosity is a duty as indispensably necessary as those imposed on us by law.

Girls like to be played with and rumpled a little too sometimes.

I can't say whether we had more wit among us now than usual, but I am certain we had more laughing, which answered the end as well.

Whenever you see a gaming table be sure to know fortune is not there. Rather she is always in the company of industry.

Like the bee, we should make our industry our amusement.

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.

To the last moment of his breath, On hope the wretch relies; And even the pang preceding death Bids expectation rise.

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!