Oliver Goldsmith Quotes
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O Memory! thou fond deceiver.
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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?
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Nothing is so contemptible as that affectation of wisdom, which some display, by universal incredulity.
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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.
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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?
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In my time, the follies of the town crept slowly among us, but now they travel faster than a stagecoach.
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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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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.
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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.
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Turn, gentle Hermit of the Dale,And guide my lonely wayTo where yon taper cheers the valeWith hospitable ray.
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Silence gives consent.
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Measures, not men, have always been my mark.
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Our Garrick's a salad; for in him we seeOil, vinegar, sugar, and saltness agree!
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For just experience tells; in every soil,That those that think must govern those that toil.
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The canvas glow'd beyond ev'n Nature warm,The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.
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Careless their merits or their faults to scan,His pity gave ere charity began.Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride,And e'en his failings leaned to Virtue's side.
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The jests of the rich are ever successful.
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Let us draw upon Content for the deficiencies of fortune.
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The land of scholars and the nurse of arms.
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By sports like these are all their cares beguil'd;The sports of children satisfy the child.
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Thus love is the most easy and agreeable, and gratitude the most humiliating, affection of the mind. We never reflect on the man we love without exulting in our choice, while he who has bound us to him by benefits alone rises to our ideas as a person to whom we have in some measure forfeited our freedom.
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Every absurdity has a champion to defend it.
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Alike all ages. Dames of ancient daysHave led their children through the mirthful maze,And the gay grandsire, skill'd in gestic lore,Has frisk'd beneath the burden of threescore.