Oliver Goldsmith Quotes

Filial obedience is the first and greatest requisite of a state; by this we become good subjects to our emperors, capable of behaving with just subordination to our superiors, and grateful dependents on heaven; by this we become fonder of marriage, in order to be capable of exacting obedience from others in our turn; by this we become good magistrates, for early submission is the truest lesson to those who would learn to rule. By this the whole state may be said to resemble one family.

Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall.

Whatever the skill of any country may be in the sciences, it is from its excellence in polite learning alone that it must expect a character from posterity.

All his faults are such that one loves him still the better for them.

Titles and mottoes to books are like escutcheons and dignities in the hands of a king. The wise sometimes condescend to accept of them; but none but a fool would imagine them of any real importance. We ought to depend upon intrinsic merit, and not the slender helps of the title.

Philosophy can add to our happiness in no other manner but by diminishing our misery; it should not pretend to increase our present stock, but make us economists of what we are possessed of. Happy were we all born philosophers; all born with a talent of thus dissipating our own cares by spreading them upon all mankind.

And as a bird each fond endearment tries To tempt its new-fledg'd offspring to the skies, He tried each art, reprov'd each dull delay, Allur'd to brighter worlds, and led the way.

Life has been compared to a race, but the allusion improves by observing, that the most swift are usually the least manageable and the most likely to stray from the course. Great abilities have always been less serviceable to the possessors than moderate ones.

Alike all ages. Dames of ancient days Have led their children through the mirthful maze, And the gay grandsire, skill'd in gestic lore, Has frisk'd beneath the burden of threescore.

True wisdom consists of tracing effects to their causes.

They say women and music should never be dated.

Modesty seldom resides in a breast that is not enriched with nobler virtues.

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

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.

Pity and friendship are two passions incompatible with each other.

Crimes generally punish themselves.

Nothing is so contemptible as that affectation of wisdom, which some display, by universal incredulity.

Why was this heart of mine formed with so much sensibility! Or why not my fortune adapted to its impulses! Tenderness without a capacity of relieving only makes the man who feels it more wretched than the object which sues for assistance.

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.

As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm,- Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, Eternal sunshine settles on its head.

Where wealth accumulates, men decay.

Aspiring beggary is wretchedness itself.

I have seen her and sister cry over a book for an hour together, and they said, they liked the book the better the more it made them cry.

Like the tiger, that seldom desists from pursuing man after having once preyed upon human flesh, the reader who has once gratified his appetite with calumny makes ever after the most agreeable feast upon murdered reputations!

An Englishman fears contempt more than death.

Could a man live by it, it were not unpleasant employment to be a poet.

For the first time, the best may err, art may persuade, and novelty spread out its charms. The first fault is the child of simplicity; but every other the offspring of guilt.

If frugality were established in the state, and if our expenses were laid out to meet needs rather than superfluities of life, there might be fewer wants, and even fewer pleasures, but infinitely more happiness.

An emperor in his nightcap will not meet with half the respect of an emperor with a crown.

Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, and fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray.

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.

Friendship is a disinterested commerce between equals; love, an abject intercourse between tyrants and slaves.

In my time, the follies of the town crept slowly among us, but now they travel faster than a stagecoach.

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

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.

Error is ever talkative.

Her modest looks the cottage might adorn, Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn.

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

I always get the better when I argue alone.

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

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.

To aim at excellence, our reputation, and friends, and all must be ventured; to aim at the average we run no risk and provide little service.

Prudery is ignorance.

In all the silent manliness of grief.

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

By sports like these are all their cares beguil'd; The sports of children satisfy the child.

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

The life of a scholar seldom abounds with adventure.