Oliver Goldsmith Quotes

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Blame where you must, be candid where you can, And be each critic the Good-natured Man.

To make a fine gentleman, several trades are required, but chiefly a barber.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wealth accumulates, and men decay.

Little things are great to little men.

Error is always talkative.

Tenderness is a virtue.

The fortunate circumstances of our lives are generally found, at last, to be of our own producing.

The ingratitude of the world can never deprive us of the conscious happiness of having acted with humanity ourselves.

Hope is such a bait, it covers any hook.

In all the silent manliness of grief.

Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain.

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

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

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

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

The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them.

The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.

Hope, like the gleaming taper's light, Adorns and cheers our way; And still, as darker grows the night, Emits a brighter ray.

Silence is become his mother tongue.

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.

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.

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.

Silence gives consent.

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

The first time I read an excellent book, it is to me just as if I had gained a new friend. When I read a book over I have perused before, it resembles the meeting with an old one.

Every absurdity has a champion to defend it.

People seek within a short span of life to satisfy a thousand desires, each of which is insatiable.

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.

The mind is ever ingenious in making its own distress.

Those who think must govern those that toil.

Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.

A traveler of taste will notice that the wise are polite all over the world, but the fool only at home.

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

The man recovered of the bite, The dog it was that died.

Nobody with me at sea but myself.

If one wishes to become rich they must appear rich.

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.