Oliver Goldsmith Quotes
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I find you want me to furnish you with argument and intellects too.
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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.
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A man he was to all the country dear,And passing rich with forty pounds a year.
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Cheerful at morn, he wakes from short repose,Breasts the keen air, and carols as he goes.
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Pride in their port, defiance in their eye,I see the lords of humankind pass by.
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How happy he who crowns in shades like these,A youth of labour with an age of ease.
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O friendship! thou fond soother of the human breast, to thee we fly in every calamity; to thee the wretched seek for succor; on thee the care-tired son of misery fondly relies; from thy kind assistance the unfortunate always hopes relief, and may be sure of--disappointment.
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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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The twelve good rules, the royal game of goose.
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A book may be very amusing with numerous errors, or it may be very dull without a single absurdity.
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This same philosophy is a good horse in the stable, but an arrant jade on a journey.
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Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see,My heart untraveled fondly turns to thee;Still to my brother turns with ceaseless pain,And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.
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To the last moment of his breathOn hope the wretch relies;And e'en the pang preceding deathBids expectation rise.
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The wisdom of the ignorant somewhat resembles the instinct of animals; it is diffused in but a very narrow sphere, but within the circle it acts with vigor, uniformity, and success.
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We sometimes had those little rubs which Providence sends to enhance the value of its favors.
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They would talk of nothing but high life, and high-lived company, with other fashionable topics, such as pictures, taste, Shakespeare, and the musical glasses.
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The only art her guilt to cover,To hide her shame from every eye,To give repentance to her lover,And wring his bosom, is — to die.
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The bashful virgin's sidelong looks of love,The matron's glance that would those looks reprove.
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Travellers, George, must pay in all places: the only difference is, that in good inns, you pay dearly for your luxuries, and in bad inns you are fleeced and starved.
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Bends to the grave with unperceived decay,While resignation gently slopes the way;And, all his prospects brightening to the last,His heaven commences ere the world be past.
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To what happy accident is it that we owe so unexpected a visit?
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The Europeans are themselves blind who describe fortune without sight. No first-rate beauty ever had finer eyes, or saw more clearly. They who have no other trade but seeking their fortune need never hope to find her; coquette-like, she flies from her close pursuers, and at last fixes on the plodding mechanic who stays at home and minds his business.
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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.
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The first blow is half the battle.