A Quote by Oliver Goldsmith

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

Oliver Goldsmith

Quote Topics

Alas Brings Decay Fortune Joys More Prize Still Than Things Those Trifling

Quote Author

Oliver Goldsmith
Irish - Novelist
November 10, 1730 - April 4, 1774

Fame is a skittish jade, more fickle even than Fortune, and apt to shy, and bolt, and plunge away on very trifling causes.

Anthony Trollope

There is something in the decay of nature that awakens thought, even in the most trifling mind.

Sarah Josepha Hale

Nothing is more unworthy of a wise man, or ought to trouble him more, than to have allowed more time for trifling, and useless things, than they deserve.

Plato

Those who give too much attention to trifling things become generally incapable of great ones.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Phantoms in general are nothing more than trifling disorders of the spirit; images we cannot contain within the bounds of sleep.

Luigi Pirandello

None so nearly disposed to scoffing at religion as those who have accustomed themselves to swear on trifling occasions.

John Tillotson

It is so often the odd, the unexpected, the apparently trifling, that stamps itself upon the memory for ever, while much more memorable things pass away like a breath of wind.

Esther Meynell

A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones.

Lord Chesterfield

A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things, but cannot receive great ones.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Frequently the more trifling the subject, the more animated and protracted the discussion.

Franklin Pierce

Almost everyone takes pleasure in repaying trifling obligations, very many feel gratitude for those that are moderate; but there is scarcely anyone who is not ungrateful for those that are weighty.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

To give importance to trifling matters.

John Heywood

And I have again observed, my dear friend, in this trifling affair, that misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness. At all events, the two latter are of less frequent occurrence.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Children are overbearing, supercilious, passionate, envious, inquisitive, egotistical, idle, fickle, timid, intemperate, liars, and dissemblers; they laugh and weep easily, are excessive in their joys and sorrows, and that about the most trifling objects; they bear no pain, but like to inflict it on others; already they are men.