Oliver Goldsmith Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

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

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Giving Up, Add, Impudence

  Oliver Goldsmith (1854). “The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Enquiry into the present state of polite learning. The citizen of the world”, p.467

  21 Copy quote

• If you were to make little fishes talk, they would talk like whales.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Whales, Littles, Fishes

  Oliver Goldsmith (1862). “Poetical Works”, p.80

  21 Copy quote

• There are some faults so nearly allied to excellence that we can scarce weed out the vice without eradicating the virtue.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Weed, Marijuana, Excellence

  'The Good-Natured Man' (1768) act 1

  9 Copy quote

• True generosity is a duty as indispensably necessary as those imposed upon us by the law. It is a rule imposed upon us by reason, which should be the sovereign law of a rational being.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Law, Generosity, Sovereign

  Oliver Goldsmith (1854). “The works of Oliver Goldsmith, ed. by P. Cunningham”, p.165

  8 Copy quote

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

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Men, Mouths, Spoons

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• I chose my wife, as she did her wedding gown, for qualities that would wear well.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Anniversary, Wedding, Wife

  11 Copy quote

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

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Use It Or Lose It, Speech, Want

  'Essays' 5 'The Use of Language'

  19 Copy quote

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

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Fall, Genius, Lines

  Oliver Goldsmith (1856). “The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Comprising His Poems, Comedies, Essays, and Vicar of Wakefield”, p.287

  7 Copy quote

• Prudery is ignorance.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Ignorance

  7 Copy quote

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

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Names, Society, Titles

  Oliver Goldsmith (1819). “Citizen of the World”, p.238

  10 Copy quote

• 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.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Life, Children, Fall

  Oliver Goldsmith, Sir James Prior (1851). “The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Including a Variety of Pieces Now First Collected”, p.197

  8 Copy quote

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

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Gentleman, Barbers, Fine

  Oliver Goldsmith (1854). “The miscellaneous works of Oliver Goldsmith: including a variety of pieces now first collected”, p.23

  88 Copy quote

• Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain, With grammar, and nonsense, and learning, Good liquor, I stoutly maintain, Gives genius a better discerning.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Giving, Brain, Intelligence

  'She Stoops to Conquer' (1773) act 1, sc. 1, song

  13 Copy quote

• 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.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Country, Character, Favors

  Oliver Goldsmith (1819). “Essays and poems, by Dr. Oliver Goldsmith. To which are prefixed, memoirs of the author”, p.3

  8 Copy quote

• You, that are going to be married, think things can never be done too fast: but we that are old, and know what we are about, must elope methodically, madam.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Marriage, Thinking, Done

  'The Good-Natured Man' (1768) act 2

  5 Copy quote

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

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Thinking, Justice, Toil

  Oliver Goldsmith (1837). “The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M. B.: Including a Variety of Pieces”, p.27

  4 Copy quote

• To be poor, and to seem poor, is a certain method never to rise.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Poverty, Poor, Method

  Oliver Goldsmith (1841). “Essays”, p.30

  8 Copy quote

• The dog, to gain some private ends,
  Went mad, and bit the man.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Dog, Men, Mad

  "The Vicar of Wakefield" by Oliver Goldsmith, (Ch. 17), 1766.

  8 Copy quote

• Politeness is the result of good sense and good nature.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Results, Politeness, Good Nature

  Oliver Goldsmith, Sir James Prior (1837). “The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.: Letters from a citizen of the world, to his friend in the East. A familiar introduction to the study of natural history”, p.155

  12 Copy quote

• The watch-dog's voice that bay'd the whispering wind, And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Dog, Laughter, Wind

  Oliver Goldsmith (1858). “Goldsmith's Deserted village, with remarks on the analysis of sentences, exercises in parsing, notes ... and a life of the poet ... By Walter M'Leod”, p.61

  8 Copy quote

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

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Creation, Modest, Whole

  Oliver Goldsmith (2012). “She Stoops to Conquer”, p.13, Courier Corporation

  9 Copy quote

• Measures, not men, have always been my mark.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Men, Mark

  Oliver Goldsmith (1807). “The good natur'd man: a comedy, etc”, p.24

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• Our chief comforts often produce our greatest anxieties, and the increase in our possessions is but an inlet to new disquietudes.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Anxiety, Simple Life, Comfort

  Oliver Goldsmith (1833). “Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith: With a New Life of the Author”, p.178

  10 Copy quote

• Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Strength, Justice, Coward

  1766 The Vicar of Wakefield, ch.13.

  8 Copy quote

• Sweet was the sound, when oft, at evening's close,
  Up yonder hill the village murmur rose;
  There as I passed, with careless steps and slow,
  The mingling notes came soften'd from below;
  The swain responsive as the milkmaid sung,
  The sober herd that low'd to meet their young;
  The noisy geese that gabbled o'er the pool,
  The playful children just let loose from school;
  The watch-dog's voice that bay'd the whispering wind,
  And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind;
  These all in sweet confusion sought the shade,
  And fill'd each pause the nightingale had made.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Dog, Sweet, Children

  Oliver Goldsmith, “The Deserted VILLage”

  7 Copy quote

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