Best 314 quotes of Oliver Goldsmith on MyQuotes

The folly of others is ever most ridiculous to those who are themselves most foolish.

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

The genteel thing is the genteel thing any time, if as be that a gentleman bees in a concatenation accordingly.

The greatest object in the universe, says a certain philosopher, is a good man struggling with adversity; yet there is still a greater, which is the good man who comes to relieve it.

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

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

The hours we pass with happy prospects in view are more pleasing than those crowded with fruition.

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

The jests of the rich are ever successful.

The life of a scholar seldom abounds with adventure.

The little mind who loves itself, will wr'te and think with the vulgar; but the great mind will be bravely eccentric, and scorn the beaten road, from universal benevolence.

The loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.

The malicious sneer is improperly called laughter.

The man recovered of the bite, The dog it was that died.

The mind is ever ingenious in making its own distress.

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

The nakedness of the indigent world may be clothed from the trimmings of the vain.

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.

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

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.

The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.

The premises being thus settled, I proceed to observe that the concatenation of self-existence, proceeding in a reciprocal duplicate ratio, naturally produces a problematical dialogism, which in some measure proves that the essence of spirituality may be referred to the second predicable.

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.

[T]here are depths of thousands of miles which are hidden from our inquiry. The only tidings we have from those unfathomable regions are by means of volcanoes, those burning mountains that seem to discharge their materials from the lowest abysses of the earth.

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

There is nothing so absurd or ridiculous that has not at some time been said by some philosopher. Fontenelle says he would undertake to persuade the whole public of readers to believe that the sun was neither the cause of light or heat, if he could only get six philosophers on his side.

There is nothing so absurd or ridiculous that has not at some time been said by some philosopher.

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.

There is probably no country so barbarous that would not disclose all it knew, if it received equivalent information; and I am apt to think that a person who was ready to give more knowledge than he received would be welcome wherever he came.

There is unspeakable pleasure attending the life of a voluntary student.

There is yet a silent agony in which the mind appears to disdain all external help, and broods over its distresses with gloomy reserve. This is the most dangerous state of mind; accidents or friendships may lessen the louder kinds of grief, but all remedies for this must be had from within, and there despair too often finds the most deadly enemy.

The soul may be compared to a field of battle, where the armies are ready every moment to encounter. Not a single vice but has a more powerful opponent, and not one virtue but may be overborne by a combination of vices.

The sports of children satisfy the child.

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

The volume of Nature is the book of knowledge.

The volumes of antiquity, like medals, may very well serve to amuse the curious, but the works of the moderns, like the current coin of a kingdom, are much better for immediate use.

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

The way to acquire lasting esteem is not by the fewness of a writer's faults, but the greatness of his beauties, and our noblest works are generally most replete with both.

The whitewash'd wall, the nicely sanded floor, The varnish'd clock that click'd behind the door; The chest, contriv'd a double debt to pay,- A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

They say women and music should never be dated.

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.

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

Those who think must govern those that toil.

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