“Every acknowledgment of gratitude is a circumstance of humiliation; and some are found to submit to frequent mortifications of this kind, proclaiming what obligations they owe, merely because they think it in some measure cancels the debt.”
Source: Goldsmith's miscellaneous works
“Thus love is the most easy and agreeable, and gratitude the most humiliating, affection of the mind. We never reflect on the man we love without exulting in our choice, while he who has bound us to him by benefits alone rises to our ideas as a person to whom we have in some measure forfeited our freedom.”
Source: The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith: With an Account of His Life and Writings
“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.”
Source: The Works of Oliver Goldsmith
“Blest be that spot, where cheerful guests retire
To pause from toil, and trim their evening fire;
Blest that abode, where want and pain repair,
And every stranger finds a ready chair
Blest be those feasts with simple plenty crown'd,
Where all the ruddy family around
Laugh at the jest or pranks, that never fail,
Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale,
Or press the bashful stranger to his food,
And learn the luxury of doing good.”
Source: Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith: With a New Life of the Author
“Nothing is so contemptible as that affectation of wisdom, which some display, by universal incredulity.”
Source: A History of the Earth and Animated Nature: Illus. with 85 Copperplates
“Near yonder thorn, that lifts its head on high,
Where once the sign-post caught the passing eye,
Low lies that house where nut-brown draughts inspired,
Where graybeard mirth and smiling toil retired,
Where village statesmen talk'd with looks profound,
And news much older than their ale went round.”
Source: The miscellaneous works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.: with a biographical memoir of the author, written expressly for this edition
“Novels teach the youthful mind to sigh after happiness that never existed.”
“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.”
Source: Miscellaneous Works Including a Variety of Pieces Now First Collected by James Prior
“All that philosophy can teach is to be stubborn or sullen under misfortunes.”
Source: The Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.: With a Life and Notes
“I fancy the character of a poet is in every country the same,--fond of enjoying the present, careless of the future; his conversation that of a man of sense, his actions those of a fool.”
Source: His Works
“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.”
Source: An inquiry into the present state of polite learning. The Bee. History of Cyrillo Padovano. Life of Dr. Parnell. Life of Lord Bolingbroke. Prefaces and introductions
“To be poor, and to seem poor, is a certain method never to rise.”
Source: Essays
“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.”
Source: The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.
“As in some Irish houses, where things are so-so,
One gammon of bacon hangs up for a show;
But, for eating a rasher of what they take pride in,
They'd as soon think of eating the pan it is fried in.”
Source: The miscellaneous works of Oliver Goldsmith
“Prudery is ignorance.”
“Quality and title have such allurements that hundreds are ready to give up all their own importance, to cringe, to flatter, to look little, and to pall every pleasure in constraint, merely to be among the great, though without the least hopes of improving their understanding or sharing their generosity. They might be happier among their equals.”
Source: The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith: With an Account of His Life and Writings : Stereotyped from the Paris Edition : Complete in One Volume
“Religion does what philosophy could never do; it shows the equal dealings of Heaven to the happy and the unhappy, and levels all human enjoyments to nearly the same standard. It gives to both rich and poor the same happiness hereafter, and equal hopes to aspire after it.”
Source: The works of Oliver Goldsmith: Vicar of Wakefield, select poems and comedies, with intr., notes and a life by J.F. Waller
“Whichever way we look the prospect is disagreeable. Behind, we have left pleasures we shall never enjoy, and therefore regret; and before, we see pleasures which we languish to possess, and are consequently uneasy till we possess them.”
Source: The miscellaneous works of Oliver Goldsmith
“We are all sure of two things, at least; we shall suffer and we shall all die.”
“A French woman is a perfect architect in dress: she never, with Gothic ignorance, mixes the orders; she never tricks out a snobby Doric shape with Corinthian finery; or, to speak without metaphor, she conforms to general fashion only when it happens not to be repugnant to private beauty.”
“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.”
Source: Miscellaneous Works: To which is Prefixed Some Account of His Life and Writings
“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.”
Source: The works of Oliver Goldsmith. 2: Enquiry into the present state of polite learning; The citizen of the world
“As boys should be educated with temperance, so the first greatest lesson that should be taught them is to admire frugality. It is by the exercise of this virtue alone they can ever expect to be useful members of society.”
Source: The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: The bee. Essays. Unacknowledged essays. Prefaces, introductions, etc
“It world be well had we more misers than we have among us.”
Source: Letters from a citizen of the world (concluded). The Bee, a select collection of essays, on the most interesting and entertaining subjects
“What we say of a thing that has just come in fashion
And that which we do with the dead,
Is the name of the honestest man in the nation:
What more of a man can be said?”
Source: The Works of Oliver Goldsmith
“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.”
Source: The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Comprising His Poems, Comedies, Essays, and Vicar of Wakefield
“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?”
Source: His Works
“Alas! the joys that fortune brings
Are trifling, and decay,
And those who prize the trifling things,
More trifling still than they.”
Source: Goldsmith's miscellaneous works
“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.”
Source: Essays and poems, by Dr. Oliver Goldsmith. To which are prefixed, memoirs of the author
“The Europeans are themselves blind who describe fortune without sight. No first-rate beauty ever had finer eyes, or saw more clearly. They who have no other trade but seeking their fortune need never hope to find her; coquette-like, she flies from her close pursuers, and at last fixes on the plodding mechanic who stays at home and minds his business.”
Source: Miscellaneous Works: To which is Prefixed Some Account of His Life and Writings
“What real good does an addition to a fortune already sufficient procure? Not any. Could the great man, by having his fortune increased, increase also his appetites, then precedence might be attended with real amusement.”
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
“Eternal blessings crown my earliest friend,
And round his dwelling guardian saints attend.”
Source: The Miscellaneous Works: Poems. Miscellaneous pieces. Dramas. Criticism relating to poetry and the belles-lettres
“A man's own heart must ever be given to gain that of another.”
Source: The Vicar of Wakefield, a Tale: To which is Annexed The Deserted Village ...
“Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie.”
“No vernal blooms their torpid rocks array,
But winter lingering chills the lap of May;
No zephyr fondly sues the mountain's breast,
But meteors glare, and stormy glooms invest.”
Source: Goldsmith's miscellaneous works
“Pity, though it may often relieve, is but, at best, a short-lived passion, and seldom affords distress more than transitory assistance; with some it scarce lasts from the first impulse till the hand can be put into the pocket.”
Source: Essays, poems and plays
“Politics resemble religion; attempting to divest either of ceremony is the most certain mode of bringing either into contempt.”
“The work of eradicating crimes is not by making punishment familiar, but formidable.”
Source: The works of Oliver Goldsmith: Vicar of Wakefield, select poems and comedies, with intr., notes and a life by J.F. Waller
“Mortifications are often more painful than real calamities.”
Source: The Vicar of Wakefield: A Tale
“A silent address is the genuine eloquence of sincerity.”
Source: The works of Oliver Goldsmith. 1: Poetical works; Dramas; The vicar of Wakefield
“Here let me sit in sorrow for mankind.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith ; The Vicar of Wakefield: A Tale
“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.”
Source: Miscellaneous works
“There is unspeakable pleasure attending the life of a voluntary student.”
Source: Works: With a Life and Notes
“A boy will learn more true wisdom in a public school in a year than by a private education in five. It is not from masters, but from their equals, that youth learn a knowledge of the world.”
Source: An inquiry into the present state of polite learning. The Bee. History of Cyrillo Padovano. Life of Dr. Parnell. Life of Lord Bolingbroke. Prefaces and introductions
“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.”
Source: Works: With a Life and Notes
“Error is always talkative.”
“Taste is the power of relishing or rejecting whatever is offered for the entertainment of the imagination.”
Source: The Works of Oliver Goldsmith
“Teach erring man to spurn the rage of gain.”
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
“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.”
Source: Essays and The Bee
“But times are alter'd; trade's unfeeling train
Usurp the land, and dispossess the swain;
Along the lawn, where scatter'd hamlets rose,
Unwieldy wealth and cumbrous pomp repose.”
Source: The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Including a Variety of Pieces Now First Collected
