Oliver Goldsmith Quotes

Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.

Who pepper'd the highest was surest to please.

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.

I was ever of the opinion, that the honest man who married and brought up a large family, did more service than he who continued single, and only talked of population.

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.

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.

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

People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy.

Wit generally succeeds more from being happily addressed than from its native poignancy. A jest, calculated to spread at a gaming-table, may be received with, perfect indifference should it happen to drop in a mackerel-boat.

Good people all, with one accord, Lament for Madam Blaize, Who never wanted a good word From those who spoke her praise.

Tenderness is a virtue.

The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.

Teach erring man to spurn the rage of gain.

Of all kinds of ambition, that which pursues poetical fame is the wildest

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.

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

Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow, Or by the lazy Scheld or wandering Po.

Want of prudence is too frequently the want of virtue.

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

Be not affronted at a joke. If one throw salt at thee, thou wilt receive no harm, unless thou art raw.

Persecution is a tribute the great must always pay for preeminence.

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

Good counsel rejected returns to enrich the givers bosom.

What is genius or courage without a heart?

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.

Ceremonies are different in every country, but true politeness is everywhere the same.

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.

The sports of children satisfy the child.

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

If the soul be happily disposed, every thing becomes capable of affording entertainment, and distress will almost want a name.

There is nothing magnanimous in bearing misfortunes with fortitude, when the whole world is looking on.... He who, without friends to encourage or even without hope to alleviate his misfortunes, can behave with tranquility and indifference, is truly great.

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 a vagabond.

And learn the luxury of doing good.

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

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

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.

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

Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace the day's disasters in his morning face.

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.

Our Garrick 's a salad; for in him we see Oil, vinegar, sugar, and saltness agree!

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.

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?

Every want that stimulates the breast becomes a source of pleasure when redressed.

Processions, cavalcades, and all that fund of gay frippery, furnished out by tailors, barbers, and tire-women, mechanically influence the mind into veneration; an emperor in his nightcap would not meet with half the respect of an emperor with a crown.

Ridicule has even been the most powerful enemy of enthusiasm, and properly the only antagonist that can be opposed to it with success.

Taste is the power of relishing or rejecting whatever is offered for the entertainment of the imagination.

If you don't ask me questions, I can't give you an untrue answer.

The malicious sneer is improperly called laughter.