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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.
Oliver Goldsmith -
Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall.
Oliver Goldsmith
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When he talked of their Raphaels, Correggios, and stuff,He shifted his trumpet and only took snuff.
Oliver Goldsmith -
We modest Gentlemen don't want for much success among the women.
Oliver Goldsmith -
O Memory! thou fond deceiver.
Oliver Goldsmith -
He cast off his friends as a huntsman his pack,For he knew when he pleased he could whistle them back.
Oliver Goldsmith -
The whitewashed wall, the nicely sanded floor,The varnished clock that clicked behind the door;The chest contrived a double debt to pay,A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day.
Oliver Goldsmith -
Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse.
Oliver Goldsmith
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In my time, the follies of the town crept slowly among us, but now they travel faster than a stagecoach.
Oliver Goldsmith -
Is it that Nature, attentive to the preservation of mankind, increases our wishes to live, while she lessens our enjoyments, and as she robs the senses of every pleasure, equips imag-ination in the spoil?
Oliver Goldsmith -
Turn, gentle Hermit of the Dale,And guide my lonely wayTo where yon taper cheers the valeWith hospitable ray.
Oliver Goldsmith -
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 -
The best way to make your audience laugh is to start laughing yourself.
Oliver Goldsmith -
In a polite age almost every person becomes a reader, and receives more instruction from the Press than the Pulpit.
Oliver Goldsmith
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His conduct still right, with his argument wrong.
Oliver Goldsmith -
To men of other minds my fancy flies,Embosomed in the deep where Holland lies.Methinks her patient sons before me stand,Where the broad ocean leans against the land.
Oliver Goldsmith -
Every absurdity has a champion to defend it.
Oliver Goldsmith -
And, ev'n while fashion's brightest arts decoy,The heart distrusting asks, if this be joy.
Oliver Goldsmith -
This is that eloquence the ancients represented as lightning, bearing down every opposer; this the power which has turned whole assemblies into astonishment, admiration and awe- - that is described by the torrent, the flame, and every other instance of irresistible impetuosity.
Oliver Goldsmith -
The canvas glow'd beyond ev'n Nature warm,The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.
Oliver Goldsmith
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Nothing is so contemptible as that affectation of wisdom, which some display, by universal incredulity.
Oliver Goldsmith -
As aromatic plants bestowNo spicy fragrance while they grow;But crush'd or trodden to the ground,Diffuse their balmy sweets around.
Oliver Goldsmith -
Pity, though it may often relieve, is but, at best, a short-lived passion, and seldom affords distress more than transitory assistance; with some it scarce lasts from the first impulse till the hand can be put into the pocket.
Oliver Goldsmith -
To me more dear, congenial to my heart,One native charm, than all the gloss of art.
Oliver Goldsmith