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Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes

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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
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“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.”

PeopleWayFeelsMayCharacterRunningLife IsSpeakNaturalDealsCommonActingBehindsPlayerSweetTasteWineDrinkingSecureOne WayTheatricalStrollingPalateVinegarCommon LifeGrateSweet Wine
Book:The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: The bee. Essays. Unacknowledged essays. Prefaces, introductions, etc
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“Man little knows what calamities are beyond his patience to bear till he tries them; as in ascending the heights of ambition, which look bright from below, every step we rise shows us some new and gloomy prospect of hidden disappointment; so in our descent from the summits of pleasure, though the vale of misery below may appear, at first, dark and gloomy, yet the busy mind, still attentive to its own amusement, finds, as we descend, something to flatter and to please. Still as we approach, the darkest objects appear to brighten, and the mortal eye becomes adapted to its gloomy situation.”

KnowsMenTryingMindFirstsLooksMayLittlesStillsShowsEyeDarkPleasureSituationStepsObjectsBearsPleaseAmbitionApproachExperienceMiseryBusyDisappointmentMortalsHeightAmusementSummitCalamityEvery StepAdaptedGloomyDescentAscending
Book:The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Poetical works. Dramas. The vicar of Wakefield
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“O friendship! thou fond soother of the human breast, to thee we fly in every calamity; to thee the wretched seek for succor; on thee the care-tired son of misery fondly relies; from thy kind assistance the unfortunate always hopes relief, and may be sure of--disappointment.”

HumansKindMayCareFriendshipSonTiredMiseryDisappointmentTheeRelyReliefBreastsUnfortunateAssistanceWretchedCalamity
Book: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
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“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.”

MindKindMayStatesHelpingGriefEnemyDangerousDespairSilentAccidentsOver ItState Of MindRemedyAgonyReservesDistressGloomyDisdain
Book:The Works of Oliver Goldsmith
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“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.”

FirstsMaySaidStatesWholeOrderTurnsHeavenSubjectsLessonsCapableGratefulSuperiorsObedienceSubmissionEmperorTruestMagistratesSubordinationFilial
Book:Miscellaneous Works Including a Variety of Pieces Now First Collected by James Prior
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“We may affirm of Mr. Buffon, that which has been said of the chemists of old; though he may have failed in attaining his principal aim, of establishing a theory, yet he has brought together such a multitude of facts relative to the history of the earth, and the nature of its fossil productions, that curiosity finds ample compensation, even while it feels the want of conviction.”

WantFeelsMayHas BeensSaidFactsEarthTogetherScienceNatureNaturalTheoryAimCuriosityProductionsConvictionRelativePrincipalMultitudesFossilsCompensationChemistBuffon
Book:A history of the earth and animated nature, with an intr. view of the animal kingdom tr. from the Fr. of baron Cuvier, notes [and] a life of the author by W. Irving
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“The premises being thus settled, I proceed to observe that the concatenation of self-existence, proceeding in a reciprocal duplicate ratio, naturally produces a problematical dialogism, which in some measure proves that the essence of spirituality may be referred to the second predicable.”

MaySelfSpiritualityExistenceProduceProveEssencePremisesRatiosProceedingReciprocalDuplicate
Book:Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield employed as a means of reading made easy without any alteration of orthography ... By Charles Theodor von Kersten
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“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.”

MayCountryCharacterScienceLearningSkillsExcellencePolitePosterity
Book: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
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