Quotes by Oliver Goldsmith
Aromatic plants bestow no spicy fragrance while they grow; but crush'd or trodden to the ground, diffuse their balmy sweets around.
There is no arguing with Johnson; for when his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it.
Where wealth accumulates, men decay.
It's a damned long, boggy, dirty, dangerous way.
Our greatest glory consists not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall.
Hope is such a bait, it covers any hook.
Every absurdity has a champion to defend it.
Be not affronted at a joke. If one throw salt at thee, thou wilt receive no harm, unless thou art raw.
You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.
The jests of the rich are ever successful.
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?
He cast off his friends as a huntsman his pack, for he knew when he pleased he could whistle them back.
Some faults are so closely allied to qualities that it is difficult to weed out the vice without eradicating the virtue.
To what fortuitous occurrence do we not owe every pleasure and convenience of our lives.
It seemed to me pretty plain, that they had more of love than matrimony in them.
Our pleasures are short, and can only charm at intervals; love is a method of protraction our greatest pleasure.
Who can direct when all pretend to know?
There are some faults so nearly allied to excellence that we can scarce weed out the vice without eradicating the virtue.
With disadvantages enough to bring him to humility, a Scotsman is one of the proudest things alive.
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.
Vain, very vain is my search to find; that happiness which only centers in the mind.
And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, that one small head could carry all he knew.
Wisdom makes a slow defense against trouble, though a sure one in the end.
Hope, like the gleaming taper
Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, where wealth accumulates, and men decay.
