Quotessence
Home / Authors / Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenMayIfsPleasureMindWorldCountryLittlesStillsHeartLifeVirtueWantFirstsShouldScienceThinkingBookCareChildren

Famous Oliver Goldsmith Quotes

“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.”

MenHeartMayCountryHomeEasyDifficultImaginationBlindCuriosityPhilosopherEsteemMiserableImpulseGood ManDespiseSublimeIndulgeTravellerAstronomersVagabonds
Book:The works of Oliver Goldsmith. 2: Enquiry into the present state of polite learning; The citizen of the world
Create image

“Near yonder copse, where once the garden smil'd, And still where many a garden flower grows wild, There, where a few torn shrubs the place disclose, The village preacher's modest mansion rose. A man he was to all the country dear, And passing rich with forty pounds a year; Remote from town's he ran his godly race, Nor e'er had chang'd nor wish'd to change his place; Unskilful he to fawn, or seek for power, By doctrines fashion'd to the varying hour; Far other aims his heart had learn'd to prize. More bent to raise the wretched than to rise.”

MenYearsHeartStillsCountryWishGrowsHoursRaceRichFashionFlowerGardenTownsAimRaisesRoseDearPassingDoctrinePassingsRanFortyPoundsPrizeVillagePreacherModestBentTornGodlyWretchedMansionsClergymenShrubsFawns
Book:The Miscellaneous Works: Poems. Miscellaneous pieces. Dramas. Criticism relating to poetry and the belles-lettres
Create image

“Thus let me hold thee to my heart, And every care resign: And we shall never, never part, My life-my all that's mine!”

LifeHeartCareMinesMy HeartLet MeThee
Book:The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith: With an Account of His Life and Writings : Stereotyped from the Paris Edition : Complete in One Volume
Create image

“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.”

MenFeelsHeartCompassionObjectsMinesHe ManCapacityFortuneImpulseWhy NotTendernessSensibilityAssistanceWretchedAdapted
Book:The miscellaneous works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.: with a biographical memoir of the author, written expressly for this edition
Create image

“To me more dear, congenial to my heart, One native charm, than all the gloss of art.”

HeartArtMy HeartSimplicityDearCharmNativeGlossSimplicity In Art
Book: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
Create image