Oliver Goldsmith Quotes - Page 14

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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.

Oliver Goldsmith

Weed, Cities, House

"Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, p. 686-88, The Bee, No, IV. A City Night-Piece, 1922.

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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

Pain, Age, Cups

Oliver Goldsmith (1816). “A History of the Earth, and Animated Nature”, p.399

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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.

Oliver Goldsmith

Science, Looks, World

Oliver Goldsmith (1823). “A history of the earth, and animated nature”, p.2

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

Oliver Goldsmith

Education, Science, Interesting

Oliver Goldsmith (1844). “Poems, Plays and Essays”, p.279

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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.

Oliver Goldsmith

Eye, Home, Sight

Oliver Goldsmith (1820). “Miscellaneous Works: To which is Prefixed Some Account of His Life and Writings”, p.277

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

Oliver Goldsmith

Joy, Decay, Fortune

Oliver Goldsmith (1841). “Goldsmith's miscellaneous works”, p.5

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

Oliver Goldsmith

Girl, Mom, Daughter

Oliver Goldsmith (1834). “Life. Commendatory verses. Poems. Plays. Letters. Memorandums of agreement between Dr. Goldsmith and Thomas Davies, bookseller”, p.284

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

Oliver Goldsmith

Sarcastic, Coffins, Handsome

The Good Natured Man Act I

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Near yonder thorn, that lifts its head on high,
Where once the sign-post caught the passing eye,
Low lies that house where nut-brown draughts inspired,
Where graybeard mirth and smiling toil retired,
Where village statesmen talk'd with looks profound,
And news much older than their ale went round.

Oliver Goldsmith

Lying, Eye, Nuts

Oliver Goldsmith (1834). “The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.: With a Biographical Memoir of the Author, Written Expressly for this Edition”, p.100

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Novels teach the youthful mind to sigh after happiness that never existed.

Oliver Goldsmith

Mind, Teach, Novel

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

Oliver Goldsmith

Knowledge, Science, Intelligent

'The Deserted Village' (1770) l. 211

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

Oliver Goldsmith

Politics, Certain, Attempting

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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.

Oliver Goldsmith

Passion, Hands, May

Oliver Goldsmith (1824). “Essays, poems and plays”, p.33

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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.

Oliver Goldsmith

Pride, Thinking, House

Oliver Goldsmith, David Masson (1869). “The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith”, p.592

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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

People, Talent, Endeavor

Oliver Goldsmith, Thomas Percy, Thomas Campbell (1812). “The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.”, p.326

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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.

Oliver Goldsmith

Winter, Rocks, Mountain

Oliver Goldsmith (1841). “Goldsmith's miscellaneous works”, p.3

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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.

Oliver Goldsmith

Country, Character, People

Oliver Goldsmith (1834). “An inquiry into the present state of polite learning. The Bee. History of Cyrillo Padovano. Life of Dr. Parnell. Life of Lord Bolingbroke. Prefaces and introductions”, p.77

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

Oliver Goldsmith

Lying, Trotting, Asks

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All that philosophy can teach is to be stubborn or sullen under misfortunes.

Oliver Goldsmith

Philosophy, Stubborn, Sullen

Oliver Goldsmith (1835). “The Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.: With a Life and Notes”, p.83

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Surely the best way to meet the enemy is head on in the field and not wait till they plunder our very homes.

Oliver Goldsmith

Sports, Home, Waiting

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

Oliver Goldsmith

Love, Pleasure, Charm

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Born: November 10, 1730
Died: April 4, 1774
Occupation: Novelist
Cite this Page: Citation

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