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Oliver Goldsmith Quotes - Page 11

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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

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.

Oliver Goldsmith
Wise, Kings, Real
Oliver Goldsmith (1820). “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.

Oliver Goldsmith
Land, Rose, Wealth
Oliver Goldsmith, Sir James Prior (1851). “The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Including a Variety of Pieces Now First Collected”, p.66

There is probably no country so barbarous that would not disclose all it knew, if it received equivalent information; and I am apt to think that a person who was ready to give more knowledge than he received would be welcome wherever he came.

Oliver Goldsmith
Country, Travel, Thinking
Oliver Goldsmith (1824). “Essays, poems and plays”, p.86

Here let me sit in sorrow for mankind.

Oliver Goldsmith
Sorrow, Mankind, Let Me
Oliver Goldsmith (1854). “The Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith ; The Vicar of Wakefield: A Tale”, p.8

A silent address is the genuine eloquence of sincerity.

Oliver Goldsmith
Addresses, Sincerity, Silent
Oliver Goldsmith (1854). “The works of Oliver Goldsmith. 1: Poetical works; Dramas; The vicar of Wakefield”, p.160

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!

Oliver Goldsmith
Life, Heart, Care
Oliver Goldsmith (1849). “The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith: With an Account of His Life and Writings : Stereotyped from the Paris Edition : Complete in One Volume”, p.147

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.

Oliver Goldsmith
Gay, Mind, Half
Oliver Goldsmith (1820). “Miscellaneous Works: To which is Prefixed Some Account of His Life and Writings”, p.405

At night returning, every labour sped, He sits him down, the monarch of a shed; Smiles by his cheerful fire, and round surveys His children's looks, that brighten at the blaze; While his lov'd partner, boastful of her hoard, Displays her cleanly platter on the board.

Oliver Goldsmith
Children, Home, Night
Oliver Goldsmith (1824). “Essays, poems and plays”, p.139

It world be well had we more misers than we have among us.

Oliver Goldsmith
World, Economy, Wells
Oliver Goldsmith, John Aikin (1809). “Letters from a citizen of the world (concluded). The Bee, a select collection of essays, on the most interesting and entertaining subjects”, p.300

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?

Oliver Goldsmith
Fashion, Men, Names
Oliver Goldsmith (1900). “The Works of Oliver Goldsmith”

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

Oliver Goldsmith
Love, Pleasure, Charm

And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, that one small head could carry all he knew.

Oliver Goldsmith
Knowledge, Science, Intelligent
'The Deserted Village' (1770) l. 211

As few subjects are more interesting to society, so few have been more frequently written upon than the education of youth.

Oliver Goldsmith
Education, Science, Interesting
Oliver Goldsmith (1844). “Poems, Plays and Essays”, p.279

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.

Oliver Goldsmith
Science, Looks, World
Oliver Goldsmith (1823). “A history of the earth, and animated nature”, p.2

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.

Oliver Goldsmith
Men, Land, Decay
1770 The Deserted Village, l.51-6.

Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam, His first best country ever is at home.

Oliver Goldsmith
Country, Home, Patriotic
The Traveller l. 73 (1764)

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.

Oliver Goldsmith
Winter, Rocks, Mountain
Oliver Goldsmith (1841). “Goldsmith's miscellaneous works”, p.3

As for murmurs, mother, we grumble a little now and then, to be sure; but there's no love lost between us.

Oliver Goldsmith
Life, Mother, Lost Love
Oliver Goldsmith (2012). “She Stoops to Conquer”, p.43, Courier Corporation

Want of prudence is too frequently the want of virtue.

Oliver Goldsmith
Want, Virtue, Prudence
Oliver Goldsmith (1801). “The Beauties of Goldsmith”, p.158

Error is ever talkative.

Oliver Goldsmith
Errors, Talkative
Oliver Goldsmith (1863). “The Poetical Works ...: And The Vicar of Wakefield ...”, p.14

Where wealth and freedom reign contentment fails, And honour sinks where commerce long prevails.

Oliver Goldsmith
Failure, Long, Contentment
Oliver Goldsmith (1825). “A History of the Earth: And Animated Nature”, p.844

Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.

Oliver Goldsmith
Men, Growth, Seems
Oliver Goldsmith, Tobias Smollett, Samuel Johnson, William Shenstone (1861). “Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith, Tobias Smollett, Samuel Johnson and William Shenstone”, p.6

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.

Oliver Goldsmith
Home, Night, Scotland

Thus 'tis with all; their chief and constant care Is to seem everything but what they are.

Oliver Goldsmith
Hypocrisy, Care, Chiefs
Oliver Goldsmith, David Masson (1869). “The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith”, p.683

Amid thy desert-walks the lapwing flies, And tires their echoes with unvaried cries.

Oliver Goldsmith
Echoes, Desert, Cry
Oliver Goldsmith, Tobias Smollett, Samuel Johnson, William Shenstone (1861). “Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith, Tobias Smollett, Samuel Johnson and William Shenstone”, p.16

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