Quotes by Goldsmith, Oliver

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

Goldsmith, Oliver on modesty   

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

Goldsmith, Oliver on money   

"Don't let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter."

Goldsmith, Oliver on morality   

"With disadvantages enough to bring him to humility, a Scotsman is one of the proudest things alive."

Goldsmith, Oliver on nationalities and nationalism   

"It seemed to me pretty plain, that they had more of love than matrimony in them."

Goldsmith, Oliver on passion   

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

Goldsmith, Oliver on persecution   

"There is nothing so absurd or ridiculous that has not at some time been said by some philosopher. Fontenelle says he would undertake to persuade the whole public of readers to believe that the sun was neither the cause of light or heat, if he could only get six philosophers on his side."

Goldsmith, Oliver on philosophers and philosophy   

"Pity and friendship are two passions incompatible with each other."

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

Goldsmith, Oliver on pleasure   

"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."

Goldsmith, Oliver on ability
3 fans of this quote   

"He cast off his friends as a huntsman his pack, for he knew when he pleased he could whistle them back."

Goldsmith, Oliver on popularity   

"The mind is ever ingenious in making its own distress."

Goldsmith, Oliver on psychology   

"A great source of calamity lies in regret and anticipation; therefore a person is wise who thinks of the present alone, regardless of the past or future."

Goldsmith, Oliver on regret   

"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."

Goldsmith, Oliver on retirement   

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"The jests of the rich are ever successful."

Goldsmith, Oliver on riches   

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"Ridicule has always been the enemy of enthusiasm, and the only worthy opponent to ridicule is success."

Goldsmith, Oliver on ridicule   

"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."

Goldsmith, Oliver on romance and romanticism   

"Romance and novel paint beauty in colors more charming than nature, and describe a happiness that humans never taste. How deceptive and destructive are those pictures of consummate bliss!"

Goldsmith, Oliver on romance and romanticism   

"When lovely woman stoops to folly, and finds too late that men betray, what charm can soothe her melancholy, what art can wash her guilt away?"

Goldsmith, Oliver on seduction
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"As writers become more numerous, it is natural for readers to become more indolent; whence must necessarily arise a desire of attaining knowledge with the greatest possible ease."

Goldsmith, Oliver on books - reading   

"When a person has no need to borrow they find multitudes willing to lend."

Goldsmith, Oliver on borrowing
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"Honor sinks where commerce long prevails."

Goldsmith, Oliver on business   

"Unequal combinations are always disadvantageous to the weaker side."

Goldsmith, Oliver on business   

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"You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips."

Goldsmith, Oliver on character
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"I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines; and, I believe, Dorothy, you'll own I have been pretty fond of an old wife."

Goldsmith, Oliver on taste   

"Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace the day's disasters in his morning face."

Goldsmith, Oliver on teacher   

"Tenderness is a virtue."

Goldsmith, Oliver on tenderness   

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"Those that think must govern those that toil."

Goldsmith, Oliver on thoughts and thinking   

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

Goldsmith, Oliver on travel
3 fans of this quote   

"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 a vagabond."

Goldsmith, Oliver on travel   

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

Goldsmith, Oliver on wealth   

"Wisdom makes a slow defense against trouble, though a sure one in the end."

Goldsmith, Oliver on wisdom   

"Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, and fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray."

Goldsmith, Oliver on wisdom   

"I... chose my wife as she did her wedding-gown, not for a fine glossy surface, but such qualities as would wear well."

Goldsmith, Oliver on wives   

"Like the bee, we should make our industry our amusement."

Goldsmith, Oliver on work   

"I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing."

Goldsmith, Oliver on zeal
3 fans of this quote   

"Every absurdity has a champion to defend it; for error is always talkative."

Goldsmith, Oliver on communication   

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

Goldsmith, Oliver on competition   

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

Goldsmith, Oliver on correction   

"Good counsel rejected returns to enrich the givers bosom."

Goldsmith, Oliver on counsel