“I love everything that is old; old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.”
Source: The Vicar of Wakefield
“…The more enormous our wealth, the more extensive our fears, all our possessions are paled up with new edicts every day, and hung round with gibbets to scare every invader.”
Source: The Vicar of Wakefield
“I armed her against the censures of the world, shewed her that books were sweet unreproaching companions to the miserable, and that if they could not bring us to enjoy life, they would at least teach us to endure it.”
Source: The Vicar of Wakefield
“Still to ourselves in every place consign'd,
Our own felicity we make or find.”
Source: The Deserted Village, The Traveler, and Other Poems
“In all my wanderings through this world of care,
In all my griefs -- and God has given my share --
I still had hopes, my latest hours to crown,
Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down;
To husband out life's taper at the close,
And keep the flame from wasting, by repose:
I still had hopes, for pride attends us still,
Amidst the swains to show my book-learn'd skill,
Around my fire an evening group to draw,
And tell of all I felt, and all I saw;
And, as a hare, whom hounds and horns pursue,
Pants to the place from whence at first she flew,
I still had hopes, my long vexations past,
Here to return -- and die at home at last.”
“Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no fibs.”
Source: She Stoops to Conquer
“I always get the better when I argue alone.”
“They please, are pleas'd, they give to get esteem Till, seeming blest, they grow to what they seem.”
Source: The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B..
“I find you want me to furnish you with argument and intellects too. No, sir, these, I protest you, are too hard for me.”
“In arguing one should meet serious pleading with humor, and humor with serious pleading.”
“Trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay.”
Source: The works of Oliver Goldsmith: Vicar of Wakefield, select poems and comedies, with intr., notes and a life by J.F. Waller
“Blame where you must, be candid where you can, And be each critic the Good-natured Man.”
Source: The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Miscellaneous poems. The good-natured man. She stoops to conquer; or, the Mistakes of a night. An oratorio. Prefaces. [Criticisms
“Age, that lessens the enjoyment of life, increases our desire of living”
Source: Poems, Plays and Essays
“Blest be those feasts, with simple plenty crowned, Where all the ruddy family around Laugh at the jests or pranks that never fail Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale.”
Source: The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M. B.: Including a Variety of Pieces
“Fine declamation does not consist in flowery periods, delicate allusions of musical cadences, but in a plain, open, loose style, where the periods are long and obvious, where the same thought is often exhibited in several points of view.”
Source: The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Comprising His Poems, Comedies, Essays, and Vicar of Wakefield
“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.”
Source: The Miscellaneous Works: The bee. Essays. An inquiry into the present state of polite learning in Europe. Prefaces and introductions
“I hate the French because they are all slaves and wear wooden shoes.”
Source: The bee. Essays. Unacknowledged essays. Prefaces, Introductions, etc
“Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.”
Source: Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith, Tobias Smollett, Samuel Johnson and William Shenstone
“What if in Scotland's wilds we viel'd our head, Where tempests whistle round the sordid bed; Where the rug's two-fold use we might display, By night a blanket, and a plaid by day.”
“Thus 'tis with all; their chief and constant care Is to seem everything but what they are.”
Source: The miscellaneous works of Oliver Goldsmith
“Amid thy desert-walks the lapwing flies, And tires their echoes with unvaried cries.”
Source: Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith, Tobias Smollett, Samuel Johnson and William Shenstone
“The more various our artificial necessities, the wider is our circle of pleasure; for all pleasure consists in obviating necessities as they rise; luxury, therefore, as it increases our wants, increases our capacity for happiness”
Source: His Works
“By every remove I only drag a greater length of chain.”
Source: Works: With a Life and Notes
“Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, I see the lords of humankind pass by.”
“One should not quarrel with a dog without a reason sufficient to vindicate one through all the courts of morality.”
“In a polite age almost every person becomes a reader, and receives more instruction from the Press than the Pulpit.”
Source: The miscellaneous works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.: with a biographical memoir of the author, written expressly for this edition
“Nobody with me at sea but myself.”
Source: The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Comprising His Poems, Comedies, Essays, and Vicar of Wakefield
“Villainy, when detected, never gives up, but boldly adds impudence to imposture.”
Source: The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Enquiry into the present state of polite learning. The citizen of the world
“Our bounty, like a drop of water, disappears, when diffus'd too widely”
“To a philosopher no circumstance, however trifling, is too minute.”
Source: The Citizen of the World; Or, Letters from a Chinese Philosopher, Residing in London, to His Friends in the East
“How blest is he who crowns in shades like these A youth of labour with an age of ease!”
“The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade, For talking age and whispering lovers made.”
Source: 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
“The volume of Nature is the book of knowledge.”
Source: The Beauties of Goldsmith
“And the weak soul, within itself unbless'd, Leans for all pleasure on another's breast.”
Source: Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith, Tobias Smollett, Samuel Johnson and William Shenstone
“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.”
Source: The Miscellaneous Works: Letters from a citizen of the world, to his friend in the East. A familiar introduction to the study of natural history
“It is not easy to recover an art when once lost.”
Source: The Miscellaneous Works: The bee. Essays. An inquiry into the present state of polite learning in Europe. Prefaces and introductions
“How wide the limits stand Between a splendid and a happy land.”
“One writer, for instance, excels at a plan or a title page, another works away at the body of the book, and a third is a dab at an index.”
Source: The miscellaneous works of Oliver Goldsmith
“To husband out life's taper at the close, And keep the flames from wasting by repose.”
Source: The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Poetical works. Dramas. The vicar of Wakefield
“Books are necessary to correct the vices of the polite; but those vices are ever changing, and the antidote should be changed accordingly should still be new.”
Source: Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith: With a New Life of the Author
“In proportion as society refines, new books must ever become more necessary.”
Source: Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith: With a New Life of the Author
“Though very poor, may still be very blest.”
“Men may be very learned, and yet very miserable; it is easy to be a deep geometrician, or a sublime astronomer, but very difficult to be a good man. I esteem, therefore, the traveller who instructs the heart, but despise him who only indulges the imagination. 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 only a vagabond.”
Source: The works of Oliver Goldsmith. 2: Enquiry into the present state of polite learning; The citizen of the world
“Those who think must govern those that toil.”
Source: The poems and plays of Oliver Goldsmith
“Fear guides more to their duty than gratitude; for one man who is virtuous from the love of virtue, from the obligation he thinks he lies under to the Giver of all, there are ten thousand who are good only from their apprehension of punishment.”
Source: The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith: With an Account of His Life and Writings : Stereotyped from the Paris Edition : Complete in One Volume
“I love everything that's old, - old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.”
“You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.”
“Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall.”
“A great source of calamity lies in regret and anticipation; therefore a person is wise who thinks of the present alone, regardless of the past or future.”
“All that a husband or wife really wants is to be pitied a little, praised a little, and appreciated a little.”