Oliver Goldsmith quotes:

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

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!

I love everything that's old, - old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.

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.

Friendship is a disinterested commerce between equals; love, an abject intercourse between tyrants and slaves.

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

Ceremonies are different in every country, but true politeness is everywhere the same.

Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain, With grammar, and nonsense, and learning, Good liquor, I stoutly maintain, Gives genius a better discerning.

I chose my wife, as she did her wedding gown, for qualities that would wear well.

I was ever of the opinion, that the honest man who married and brought up a large family, did more service than he who continued single, and only talked of population.

All that a husband or wife really wants is to be pitied a little, praised a little, and appreciated a little.

Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain.

Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse.

On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting, 'Twas only when he was off, he was acting.

Law grinds the poor, and rich men rule the law.

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.

People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy.

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.

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.

Fancy restrained may be compared to a fountain, which plays highest by diminishing the aperture.

The company of fools may first make us smile, but in the end we always feel melancholy.

When any one of our relations was found to be a person of a very bad character, a troublesome guest, or one we desired to get rid of, upon his leaving my house I ever took care to lend him a riding-coat, or a pair of boots, or sometimes a horse of small value, and I always had the satisfaction of finding he never came back to return them.

Where wealth accumulates, men decay.

Every absurdity has a champion to defend it.

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."

The ambitious are forever followed by adulation for they receive the most pleasure from flattery.

He who fights and runs away May live to fight another day...

I find you want me to furnish you with argument and intellects too. No, sir, these, I protest you, are too hard for me.

In arguing one should meet serious pleading with humor, and humor with serious pleading.

The best way to make your audience laugh is to start laughing yourself.

Hope is such a bait, it covers any hook.

There is a greatness in being generous, and there is only simple justice in satisfying creditors. Generosity is the part of the soul raised above the vulgar.

Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam, His first best country ever is at home.

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?

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

A night-cap deck'd his brows instead of bay,- A cap by night, a stocking all the day.

We may affirm of Mr. Buffon, that which has been said of the chemists of old; though he may have failed in attaining his principal aim, of establishing a theory, yet he has brought together such a multitude of facts relative to the history of the earth, and the nature of its fossil productions, that curiosity finds ample compensation, even while it feels the want of conviction.

Of praise a mere glutton, he swallow'd what came, And the puff a dunce, he mistook it for fame; Till his relish grown callous, almost to displease, Who pepper'd the highest was surest to please.

Like the tiger, that seldom desists from pursuing man after having once preyed upon human flesh, the reader who has once gratified his appetite with calumny makes ever after the most agreeable feast upon murdered reputations!

Careless their merits or their faults to scan, His pity gave ere charity began. Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride, And even his failings lean'd to Virtue's side.

Honour sinks where commerce long prevails.

A French woman is a perfect architect in dress: she never, with Gothic ignorance, mixes the orders; she never tricks out a snobby Doric shape with Corinthian finery; or, to speak without metaphor, she conforms to general fashion only when it happens not to be repugnant to private beauty.

It has been remarked that almost every character which has excited either attention or pity has owed part of its success to merit, and part to a happy concurrence of circumstances in its favor. Had Caesar or Cromwell exchanged countries, the one might have been a sergeant and the other an exciseman.

One writer, for instance, excels at a plan or a title page, another works away at the body of the book, and a third is a dab at an index.

Alike all ages. Dames of ancient days Have led their children through the mirthful maze, And the gay grandsire, skill'd in gestic lore, Has frisk'd beneath the burden of threescore.

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.

Were I to be angry at men being fools, I could here find ample room for declamation; but, alas! I have been a fool myself; and why should I be angry with them for being something so natural to every child of humanity?

Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, I see the lords of humankind pass by.

Here lies David Garrick, describe me who can, An abridgment of all that was pleasant in man.

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

Near yonder thorn, that lifts its head on high, Where once the sign-post caught the passing eye, Low lies that house where nut-brown draughts inspired, Where graybeard mirth and smiling toil retired, Where village statesmen talk'd with looks profound, And news much older than their ale went round.

Where wealth and freedom reign contentment fails, And honour sinks where commerce long prevails.

Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog And in that town a dog was found, As many dogs there be, Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound, And curs of low degree.

Elegy of the Death of a Mad Dog The dog, to gain some praivate ends, Went mad and bit the man.

Even children follow'd with endearing wile, And pluck'd his gown, to share the good man's smile.

And as a bird each fond endearment tries To tempt its new-fledg'd offspring to the skies, He tried each art, reprov'd each dull delay, Allur'd to brighter worlds, and led the way.

Teach erring man to spurn the rage of gain.

As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm,- Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, Eternal sunshine settles on its head.

To what fortuitous occurrence do we not owe every pleasure and convenience of our lives.

Fortune is ever seen accompanying industry.

Aromatic plants bestow no spicy fragrance while they grow; but crush'd or trodden to the ground, diffuse their balmy sweets around.

If frugality were established in the state, and if our expenses were laid out to meet needs rather than superfluities of life, there might be fewer wants, and even fewer pleasures, but infinitely more happiness.

The hours we pass with happy prospects in view are more pleasing than those crowded with fruition.

In arguing too, the parson own'd his skill, For e'en though vanquish'd he could argue still; While words of learned length and thundering sound Amaz'd the gazing rustics rang'd around; And still they gaz'd, and still the wonder grew That one small head could carry all he knew.

To me more dear, congenial to my heart, One native charm, than all the gloss of art.

Politeness is the result of good sense and good nature.

Be not affronted at a joke. If one throw salt at thee, thou wilt receive no harm, unless thou art raw.

Blest that abode, where want and pain repair, And every stranger finds a ready chair.

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

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay. Princes and lords may flourish or may fade,- A breath can make them, as a breath has made; But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once destroy'd, can never be supplied.

This same philosophy is a good horse in the stable, but an arrant jade on a journey.

Popular glory is a perfect coquette; her lovers must toil, feel every inquietude, indulge every caprice, and perhaps at last be jilted into the bargain. True glory, on the other hand, resembles a woman of sense; her admirers must play no tricks. They feel no great anxiety, for they are sure in the end of being rewarded in proportion to their merit.

Wit generally succeeds more from being happily addressed than from its native poignancy. A jest, calculated to spread at a gaming-table, may be received with, perfect indifference should it happen to drop in a mackerel-boat.

In all the silent manliness of grief.

Our chief comforts often produce our greatest anxieties, and the increase in our possessions is but an inlet to new disquietudes.

No vernal blooms their torpid rocks array, But winter lingering chills the lap of May; No zephyr fondly sues the mountain's breast, But meteors glare, and stormy glooms invest.

See me, how calm I am. Ay, people are generally calm at the misfortunes of others.

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

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

Every acknowledgment of gratitude is a circumstance of humiliation; and some are found to submit to frequent mortifications of this kind, proclaiming what obligations they owe, merely because they think it in some measure cancels the debt.

An emperor in his nightcap will not meet with half the respect of an emperor with a crown.

Processions, cavalcades, and all that fund of gay frippery, furnished out by tailors, barbers, and tire-women, mechanically influence the mind into veneration; an emperor in his nightcap would not meet with half the respect of an emperor with a crown.

As for murmurs, mother, we grumble a little now and then, to be sure; but there's no love lost between us.

A flattering painter, who made it his care To draw men as they ought to be, not as they are.

The youth who follows his appetites too soon seizes the cup, before it has received its best ingredients, and by anticipating his pleasures, robs the remaining parts of life of their share, so that his eagerness only produces manhood of imbecility and an age of pain.

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

Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall.

To a philosopher no circumstance, however trifling, is too minute.

Pity and friendship are two passions incompatible with each other.

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.

Blest be those feasts, with simple plenty crowned, Where all the ruddy family around Laugh at the jests or pranks that never fail Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale.

But me, not destined such delights to share, My prime of life in wandering spent and care; Impell'd, with steps unceasing, to pursue Some fleeting good, that mocks me with the view That, like the circle bounding earth and skies, Allures from far, yet, as I follow, flies; My fortune leads to traverse reams alone, And find no spot of all the world my own.

The mind is ever ingenious in making its own distress.

The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.

Quality and title have such allurements that hundreds are ready to give up all their own importance, to cringe, to flatter, to look little, and to pall every pleasure in constraint, merely to be among the great, though without the least hopes of improving their understanding or sharing their generosity. They might be happier among their equals.

What cities, as great as this, have . . . promised themselves immortality! Posterity can hardly trace the situation of some. The sorrowful traveller wanders over the awful ruins of others. . . . Here stood their citadel, but now grown over with weeds; there their senate-house, but now the haunt of every noxious reptile; temples and theatres stood here, now only an undistinguished heap of ruins.

And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.

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

Such dainties to them, their health it might hurt; It 's like sending them ruffles when wanting a shirt.

Fortune is ever seen accompanying industry

Our Garrick's a salad; for in him we see, Oil, vinegar, sugar and saltiness agree

They may talk of a comet, or a burning mountain, or some such bagatelle; but to me a modest woman, dressed out in all her finery, is the most tremendous object of the whole creation.

People seldom improve when they have no model but themselves to copy after

Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no fibs.

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

I hate the French because they are all slaves and wear wooden shoes.

In my time, the follies of the town crept slowly among us, but now they travel faster than a stagecoach.

Error is always talkative.

Tenderness is a virtue.

Titles and mottoes to books are like escutcheons and dignities in the hands of a king. The wise sometimes condescend to accept of them; but none but a fool would imagine them of any real importance. We ought to depend upon intrinsic merit, and not the slender helps of the title.

Those who place their affections at first on trifles for amusement, will find these trifles become at last their most serious concerns.

The nakedness of the indigent world may be clothed from the trimmings of the vain.

The loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.

The watch-dog's voice that bay'd the whispering wind, And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.

Villainy, when detected, never gives up, but boldly adds impudence to imposture.

If you were to make little fishes talk, they would talk like whales.

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

There are some faults so nearly allied to excellence that we can scarce weed out the vice without eradicating the virtue.

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.

Friendship is made up of esteem and pleasure; pity is composed of sorrow and contempt: the mind may for some time fluctuate between them, but it can never entertain both at once.