Oliver Goldsmith Quotations | Page 4

Logicians have but ill defined As rational the human mind; Reason, they say, belongs to man, But let them prove it if they can.

I always get the better when I argue alone.

I have known a German Prince with more titles than subjects, and a Spanish nobleman with more names than shirts.

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

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.

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

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?

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.

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?

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

Thus 'tis with all; their chief and constant care Is to seem everything but what they are.

What if in Scotland's wilds we viel'd our head, Where tempests whistle round the sordid bed; Where the rug's two-fold use we might display, By night a blanket, and a plaid by day.

Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.

I hate the French because they are all slaves and wear wooden shoes.

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

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.

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?

The polite of every country seem to have but one character. A gentleman of Sweden differs but little, except in trifles, from one of any other country. It is among the vulgar we are to find those distinctions which characterize a people.

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.

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

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

Ridicule has always been the enemy of enthusiasm, and the only worthy opponent to ridicule is success.

Little things are great to little men.

The first time I read an excellent book, it is to me just as if I had gained a new friend. When I read a book over I have perused before, it resembles the meeting with an old one.

The fortunate circumstances of our lives are generally found, at last, to be of our own producing.

A traveler of taste will notice that the wise are polite all over the world, but the fool only at home.

Life at the greatest and best is but a froward child, that must be humored and coaxed a little till it falls asleep, and then all the care is over.

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.

Wealth accumulates, and men decay.

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

The ingratitude of the world can never deprive us of the conscious happiness of having acted with humanity ourselves.

The mind is ever ingenious in making its own distress.

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

Hope, like the gleaming taper's light, Adorns and cheers our way; And still, as darker grows the night, Emits a brighter ray.

No one but a fool would measure their satisfaction by what the world thinks of it.

Whatever mitigates the woes, or increases the happiness of others, is a just criterion of goodness; and whatever injures society at large, or any individual in it, is a criterion of iniquity.

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

Politeness is the result of good sense and good nature.

Tenderness is a virtue.

Silence gives consent.

Both wit and understanding are trifles without integrity. The ignorant peasant without fault is greater than the philosopher with many. What is genius or courage without a heart?

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

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.

To make a fine gentleman, several trades are required, but chiefly a barber.

The volume of Nature is the book of knowledge.

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

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

There is one way by which a strolling player may be ever secure of success; that is, in our theatrical way of expressing it, to make a great deal of the character. To speak and act as in common life is not playing, nor is it what people come to see; natural speaking, like sweet wine, runs glibly over the palate and scarcely leaves any taste behind it; but being high in a part resembles vinegar, which grates upon the taste, and one feels it while he is drinking.

How blest is he who crowns in shades like these A youth of labour with an age of ease!

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

Our bounty, like a drop of water, disappears, when diffus'd too widely

Villainy, when detected, never gives up, but boldly adds impudence to imposture.

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.

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

To husband out life's taper at the close, And keep the flames from wasting by repose.

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

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

Books are necessary to correct the vices of the polite; but those vices are ever changing, and the antidote should be changed accordingly should still be new.

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.

In proportion as society refines, new books must ever become more necessary.

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

Though very poor, may still be very blest.

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.

Fear guides more to their duty than gratitude; for one man who is virtuous from the love of virtue, from the obligation he thinks he lies under to the Giver of all, there are ten thousand who are good only from their apprehension of punishment.

Paltry affectation, strained allusions, and disgusting finery are easily attained by those who choose to wear them; they are but too frequently the badges of ignorance or of stupidity, whenever it would endeavor to please.

Nobody with me at sea but myself.

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

Some fleeting good, that mocks me with the view.

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!

O Luxury! thou curst by Heaven's decree!

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.

This is that eloquence the ancients represented as lightning, bearing down every opposer; this the power which has turned whole assemblies into astonishment, admiration and awe- - that is described by the torrent, the flame, and every other instance of irresistible impetuosity.

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

Crimes generally punish themselves.

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

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

Unequal combinations are always disadvantageous to the weaker side.

Measures, not men, have always been my mark.

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

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

In a polite age almost every person becomes a reader, and receives more instruction from the Press than the Pulpit.

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

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

By every remove I only drag a greater length of chain.

The more various our artificial necessities, the wider is our circle of pleasure; for all pleasure consists in obviating necessities as they rise; luxury, therefore, as it increases our wants, increases our capacity for happiness

Amid thy desert-walks the lapwing flies, And tires their echoes with unvaried cries.

If we do not find happiness in the present moment, in what shall we find it?

True genius walks along a line, and, perhaps, our greatest pleasure is in seeing it so often near falling, without being ever actually down.

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

But winter lingering chills the lap of May.

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

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

We seldom speak of the virtue which we have, but much oftener of that which we lack.

The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.

Is it that Nature, attentive to the preservation of mankind, increases our wishes to live, while she lessens our enjoyments, and as she robs the senses of every pleasure, equips imag-ination in the spoil?

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

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.

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.

One man is born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and the other with a wooden ladle.