Oliver Goldsmith Quotes (212 Quotes)

I can't say whether we had more wit among us now than usual, but I am certain we had more laughing, which answered the end as well.

Absence, like death, sets a seal on the image of those we love we cannot realize the intervening changes which time may have effected.

In arguing too, the parson own'd his skill, For e'en though vanquish'd he could argue still While words of learned length and thundering sound Amaz'd the gazing rustics rang'd around And still they gaz'd, and still the wonder grew That one small head could carry all he knew.

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

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

The genteel thing is the genteel thing any time, if as be that a gentleman bees in a concatenation accordingly.

Tenderness is a virtue.

If you were to make little fishes talk, they would talk like whales.

The hours we pass with happy prospects in view are more pleasing than those crowded with fruition.

As aromatic plants bestow No spicy fragrance while they grow But crush'd or trodden to the ground, Diffuse their balmy sweets around.

The best way to make your audience laugh is to start laughing yourself.

The jests of the rich are ever successful.

The heart of every man lies open to the shafts of correction if the archer can take proper aim.

The dog, to gain his private ends, Went mad, and bit the man.

Sure these denote one universal joy!

Her modest looks the cottage might adorn, Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn.

Silence gives consent.

Persecution is a tribute the great must always pay for preeminence.

These little things are great to little man.

Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.

Fear guides more than gratitude.

I have known a German Prince with more titles than subjects, and a Spanish nobleman with more names than shirts.

Surely the best way to meet the enemy is head on in the field and not wait till they plunder our very homes.

Life has been compared to a race, but the allusion improves by observing, that the most swift are usually the least manageable and the most likely to stray from the course. Great abilities have always been less serviceable to the possessors than moderate ones.

We had no revolutions to fear, nor fatigues to undergo all our adventures were by the fireside, and all our migrations from the blue bed to the brown.

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

And in that town a dog was found, As many dogs there be, Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound, And curs of low degree.

Whenever you see a gaming table be sure to know fortune is not there. Rather she is always in the company of industry.

Pity and friendship are two passions incompatible with each other.

Cheerful at morn, he wakes from short repose, Breasts the keen air, and carols as he goes.

Unequal combinations are always disadvantageous to the weaker side.

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

This is Liberty-Hall, gentlemen.

Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.

Little things are great to little men.

But winter lingering chills the lap of May.

He cast off his friends as a huntsman his pack, For he knew when he pleas'd he could whistle them back.

In my time, the follies of the town crept slowly among us, but now they travel faster than a stage-coach.

Beside the bed where parting life was laid,
And sorrow, guilt, and pain, by turns dismayed,
The reverend champion stood.

Fortune is ever seen accompanying industry.

The king himself has followed her When she has walk'd before.

How wide the limits stand Between a splendid and an happy land.

Our greatest glory consists not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall.

A night-cap deck'd his brows instead of bay, A cap by night, a stocking all the day.

His conduct still right, with his argument wrong.

Take a dollar from a thousand and it will be a thousand no more.

Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain, With grammar, and nonsense, and learning, Good liquor, I stoutly maintain, Gives genius a better discerning.

Who mix'd reason with pleasure, and wisdom with mirth If he had any faults, he has left us in doubt.

The canvas glow'd beyond ev'n Nature warm, The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.

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