Oliver Goldsmith Quotes - Page 6

Quotes about:

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

10 Copy quote
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

17 Copy quote
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

7 Copy quote
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”

6 Copy quote
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

4 Copy quote
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

7 Copy quote
A kind and gentle heart he had, To comfort friends and foes; The naked every day he clad When he put on his clothes.

Oliver Goldsmith

Kindness, Heart, Clothes

'Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog'

7 Copy quote
The volume of Nature is the book of knowledge.

Oliver Goldsmith

Nature, Book, Volume

Oliver Goldsmith (1801). “The Beauties of Goldsmith”, p.108

4 Copy quote
And what is friendship but a name, A charm that lulls to sleep, A shade that follows wealth or fame, And leaves the wretch to weep?

Oliver Goldsmith

Sleep, Names, Shade

Oliver Goldsmith (1825). “A History of the Earth: And Animated Nature”, p.856

4 Copy quote
They please, are pleas'd, they give to get esteem Till, seeming blest, they grow to what they seem.

Oliver Goldsmith

Ambition, Giving, Please

Oliver Goldsmith, Samuel Rose, Thomas Percy, Thomas Campbell (1821). “The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B..”, p.38

8 Copy quote
I find you want me to furnish you with argument and intellects too. No, sir, these, I protest you, are too hard for me.

Oliver Goldsmith

Want, Argument, Intellect

The Vicar of Wakefield ch. 7 (1766)

7 Copy quote
Trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay.

Oliver Goldsmith

Business, Haste, Decay

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.209

7 Copy quote
Philosophy ... should not pretend to increase our present stock, but make us economists of what we are possessed of.

Oliver Goldsmith

Philosophy, Increase, Should

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

4 Copy quote
Nobody with me at sea but myself.

Oliver Goldsmith

Sea, Solitude

Oliver Goldsmith (1856). “The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Comprising His Poems, Comedies, Essays, and Vicar of Wakefield”, p.24

11 Copy quote
Taste is the power of relishing or rejecting whatever is offered for the entertainment of the imagination.

Oliver Goldsmith

Imagination, Taste, Entertainment

Oliver Goldsmith (1854). “The Works of Oliver Goldsmith”, p.294

7 Copy quote
While selfishness joins hands with no one of the virtues, benevolence is allied to them all.

Oliver Goldsmith

Hands, Selfishness, Virtue

7 Copy quote
And the weak soul, within itself unbless'd, Leans for all pleasure on another's breast.

Oliver Goldsmith

Soul, Weakness, Pleasure

Oliver Goldsmith, Tobias Smollett, Samuel Johnson, William Shenstone (1861). “Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith, Tobias Smollett, Samuel Johnson and William Shenstone”, p.9

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

Oliver Goldsmith

Time, Gentleman, Bees

Oliver Goldsmith (1854). “The Works of Oliver Goldsmith”, p.222

7 Copy quote
In all my wanderings round this world of care,
In all my griefs-and God has given my share-
I still had hopes my latest hours to crown,
Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down.

Oliver Goldsmith

Hope, Grief, Humble

Oliver Goldsmith (1854). “The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Poetical works. Dramas. The vicar of Wakefield”, p.42

7 Copy quote
Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow, Or by the lazy Scheld or wandering Po.

Oliver Goldsmith

Lazy, Laziness, Melancholy

Oliver Goldsmith (1825). “A History of the Earth: And Animated Nature”, p.843

7 Copy quote
The bounds of a man's knowledge are easily concealed, if he has but prudence.

Oliver Goldsmith

Men, Cunning, Prudence

Oliver Goldsmith, David Masson (1869). “The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith”, p.250

9 Copy quote
I have found by experience that they who have spent all their lives in cities contract not only an effeminacy of habit, but of thinking.

Oliver Goldsmith

Thinking, Cities, Habit

Oliver Goldsmith (1834). “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”, p.136

8 Copy quote
How wide the limits stand Between a splendid and a happy land.

Oliver Goldsmith

Land, Limits, Splendid

'The Deserted Village' (1770) l. 267

7 Copy quote
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.

Oliver Goldsmith

Country, Fashion, Flower

Oliver Goldsmith (1856). “The Miscellaneous Works: Poems. Miscellaneous pieces. Dramas. Criticism relating to poetry and the belles-lettres”, p.69

8 Copy quote
This same philosophy is a good horse in the stable, but an arrant jade on a journey.

Oliver Goldsmith

Horse, Philosophy, Journey

'The Good-Natured Man' (1768) act 1

7 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Oliver Goldsmith

Follow

Born: November 10, 1730
Died: April 4, 1774
Occupation: Novelist
Cite this Page: Citation

Popular Topics