Oliver Goldsmith Quotes
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Unknown those powers that raise the soul to flame,Catch every nerve, and vibrate through the frame.Their level life is but a mouldering fire,Unquenched by want, unfanned by strong desire.
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For he who fights and runs awayMay live to fight another day;But he who is in battle slainCan never rise and fight again.
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Ceremonies are different in every country, but true politeness is everywhere the same.
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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.
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Girls like to be played with, and rumpled a little too, sometimes.
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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.
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But winter lingering chills the lap of May.
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Those who place their affections at first on trifles for amusement, will find these trifles become at last their most serious concerns.
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Good people all, with one acord,Lament for Madame Blaize,Who never wanted a good word —From those who spoke her praise.
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Fine declamation does not consist in flowery periods, delicate allusions of musical cadences, but in a plain, open, loose style, where the periods are long and obvious, where the same thought is often exhibited in several points of view.
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His conduct still right, with his argument wrong.
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One should not quarrel with a dog without a reason sufficient to vindicate one through all the courts of morality.
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That virtue which requires to be ever guarded is scarce worth the sentinel.
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Luke's iron crown, and Damien's bed of steel.
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And, ev'n while fashion's brightest arts decoy,The heart distrusting asks, if this be joy.
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Paltry affectation, strained allusions, and disgusting finery are easily attained by those who choose to wear them; they are but too frequently the badges of ignorance or of stupidity, whenever it would endeavor to please.
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When he talked of their Raphaels, Correggios, and stuff,He shifted his trumpet and only took snuff.
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He calls his extravagance, generosity; and his trusting everybody, universal benevolence.
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Creation's heir, the world, the world is mine!
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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.
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You may all go to pot.
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The sigh that rends thy constant heartShall break thy Edwin's too.
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Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse.
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Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain.