Authors:

Oliver Goldsmith Quotes - Page 5

All Quotes Age Ambition Arguing Art Character Children Country Crime Curiosity Desire Disappointment Duty Enthusiasm Excellence Failing Fame Fashion Flattery Friends Friendship Funny Generosity Genius Giving Gratitude Grief Happiness Heart Heaven Home Hope House Husband Ignorance Inspirational Integrity Joy Justice Laughter Learning Life Love Lying Mankind Mountain Pain Philosophy Pleasure Poverty Praise Pride Reading Reputation Running Science Silence Sorrow Soul Sports Travel Understanding Virtue Wealth Wisdom Writing
She who makes her husband and her children happy, who reclaims the one from vice, and trains up the other to virtue, is a much greater character than the ladies described in romance, whose whole occupation is to murder

She who makes her husband and her children happy, who reclaims the one from vice, and trains up the other to virtue, is a much greater character than the ladies described in romance, whose whole occupation is to murder mankind with shafts from their quiver or their eyes.

Oliver Goldsmith
Children, Husband, Character
Oliver Goldsmith (1833). “Miscellaneous works of Oliver Goldsmith: with a new life of the author”, p.180

I have seen her and sister cry over a book for an hour together, and they said, they liked the book the better the more it made them cry.

Oliver Goldsmith
Book, Tears, Cry
"She Stoops to Conquer".

Our bounty, like a drop of water, disappears, when diffus'd too widely

Oliver Goldsmith
Water, Disappear, Drop Of Water

Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse.

Oliver Goldsmith
Strength, Justice, Coward
1766 The Vicar of Wakefield, ch.13.

Thou source of all my bliss and all my woe, That found'st me poor at first, and keep'st me so.

Oliver Goldsmith
Woe, Poverty, Firsts
'The Deserted Village' (1770) l. 413 (on poetry)

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.

Oliver Goldsmith
Greatness, Style, Way
Oliver Goldsmith, Henry George Bohn (1848). “Works: With a Life and Notes”, p.111

An emperor in his nightcap will not meet with half the respect of an emperor with a crown.

Oliver Goldsmith
Crowns, Half, Appearance

Creation's heir, the world, the world is mine!

Oliver Goldsmith
World, Heirs, Creation
Oliver Goldsmith (1816). “Preface to Dr. Brooke's natural history. Introduction to a new History of the world. Preface to the Roman history. Preface to the History of England. Preface to An history of the earth. Preface to the Beauties of English poetry. Preface to a collection of poems for young ladies, devotional, moral, and entertaining. Dr. Aikin's Critical dissertation on the poetry of Dr. Goldsmith. Poems. Dramatic : The good-natur'd man. She stoops to conquer”, p.116

The ambitious are forever followed by adulation for they receive the most pleasure from flattery.

Oliver Goldsmith
Ambition, Forever, Ambitious

Philosophy can add to our happiness in no other manner but by diminishing our misery; it should not pretend to increase our present stock, but make us economists of what we are possessed of. Happy were we all born philosophers; all born with a talent of thus dissipating our own cares by spreading them upon all mankind.

Oliver Goldsmith
Philosophy, Care, Add
Oliver Goldsmith (1854). “Enquiry into the present state of polite learning. The citizen of the world”, p.234

We sometimes had those little rubs which Providence sends to enhance the value of its favors.

Oliver Goldsmith
Favors, Littles, Sometimes
Oliver Goldsmith (1845). “The Vicar of Wakefield: A Tale”, p.2

Modesty seldom resides in a breast that is not enriched with nobler virtues.

Oliver Goldsmith
Modesty, Virtue, Breasts
Oliver Goldsmith (1801). “The Beauties of Goldsmith”, p.121

When any one of our relations was found to be a person of a very bad character, a troublesome guest, or one we desired to get rid of, upon his leaving my house I ever took care to lend him a riding-coat, or a pair of boots, or sometimes a horse of small value, and I always had the satisfaction of finding he never came back to return them.

Oliver Goldsmith
Horse, Character, House
Oliver Goldsmith (1828). “The Vicar of Wakefield: A Tale ...”, p.7

The watch-dog's voice that bay'd the whispering wind, And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.

Oliver Goldsmith
Dog, Laughter, Wind
Oliver Goldsmith (1858). “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”, p.61

Ridicule has even been the most powerful enemy of enthusiasm, and properly the only antagonist that can be opposed to it with success.

Oliver Goldsmith
Powerful, Enemy, Enthusiasm
Oliver Goldsmith, David Masson (1869). “The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith”, p.260

I hate the French because they are all slaves and wear wooden shoes.

Oliver Goldsmith
Hate, Shoes, France
Oliver Goldsmith (1854). “The bee. Essays. Unacknowledged essays. Prefaces, Introductions, etc”, p.245

The little mind who loves itself, will wr'te and think with the vulgar; but the great mind will be bravely eccentric, and scorn the beaten road, from universal benevolence.

Oliver Goldsmith
Thinking, Mind, Eccentric

They say women and music should never be dated.

Oliver Goldsmith
Geek, Conquer, Should
George Farquhar, Isaac Bickerstaffe, David Garrick, John Burgoyne, Benjamin Hoadly (1816). “The Recruiting Officer. A Comedy”

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.

Oliver Goldsmith
Real, Men, Might
Oliver Goldsmith (1856). “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”, p.269

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.

Oliver Goldsmith
Gratitude, Love Is, Men
Oliver Goldsmith (1852). “The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith: With an Account of His Life and Writings”, p.330

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.

Oliver Goldsmith
Grateful, Order, Heaven
Oliver Goldsmith (1857). “Miscellaneous Works Including a Variety of Pieces Now First Collected by James Prior”, p.176

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.

Oliver Goldsmith
Self, Essence, May
Oliver Goldsmith, Carl Theodor von KERSTEN (1857). “Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield employed as a means of reading made easy without any alteration of orthography ... By Charles Theodor von Kersten”, p.69

There is a greatness in being generous, and there is only simple justice in satisfying creditors. Generosity is the part of the soul raised above the vulgar.

Oliver Goldsmith
Simple, Greatness, Generosity
Oliver Goldsmith (1856). “The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Comprising His Poems, Comedies, Essays, and Vicar of Wakefield”, p.182

Well had the boding tremblers learn'd to trace The day's disasters in his morning face; Full well they laugh'd with counterfeited glee At all his jokes, for many a joke had he; Full well the busy whisper circling round Convey'd the dismal tidings when he frown'd. Yet was he kind, or if severe in aught, The love he bore to learning was in fault; The village all declar'd how much he knew, 'Twas certain he could write and cipher too.

Oliver Goldsmith
Morning, Laughter, Writing
Oliver Goldsmith, “The Deserted VILLage”

As for disappointing them I should not so much mind; but I can't abide to disappoint myself.

Oliver Goldsmith
Disappointment, Mind, Disappointing
Oliver Goldsmith (1871). “The works of Oliver Goldsmith: Vicar of Wakefield, select poems and comedies, with intr., notes and a life by J.F. Waller”, p.248

You May Also Like: