Oliver Goldsmith > Quotes

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, The Citizen of the World, Or, Letters from a Chinese Philosopher, Residing in London, to His Friends in the Country, by Dr. Goldsmith

“Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no fibs.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer

“I love everything that is old; old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield

“He who fights and runs away
May live to fight another day;
But he who is battle slain
Can never rise to fight again.”
― Oliver Goldsmith

“You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.”
― Oliver Goldsmith

“I armed her against the censures of the world, shewed her that books were sweet unreproaching companions to the miserable, and that if they could not bring us to enjoy life, they would at least teach us to endure it.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield

“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.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, The Citizen of the World, Or, Letters from a Chinese Philosopher, Residing in London, to His Friends in the Country, by Dr. Goldsmith

“All is not gold that glitters, pleasure seems sweet, but proves a glass of bitters.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer

“People seldom improve when they have no model but themselves to copy after.”
― Oliver Goldsmith

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

“Modesty seldom resides in a breast that is not enriched with nobler virtues.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer

“Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield

“Every absurdity has a champion to defend it.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, The traveller: or, a prospect of society. A poem, inscribed to the Rev. Mr. Henry Goldsmith. By Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. The fifth edition.

“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.”
― Oliver Goldsmith

“law grinds the poor, rich men rule the law”
― Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield

“Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey/Where wealth accumulates and men decay”
― Oliver Goldsmith

“As the reputation of books is raised not by their freedom from defect, but the greatness of their beauties, so should that of men be prized not for their exemption from fault, but the size of those virtues they are possessed of.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield

“In all my wanderings through this world of care,
In all my griefs -- and God has given my share --
I still had hopes, my latest hours to crown,
Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down;
To husband out life's taper at the close,
And keep the flame from wasting, by repose:
I still had hopes, for pride attends us still,
Amidst the swains to show my book-learn'd skill,
Around my fire an evening group to draw,
And tell of all I felt, and all I saw;
And, as a hare, whom hounds and horns pursue,
Pants to the place from whence at first she flew,
I still had hopes, my long vexations past,
Here to return -- and die at home at last.”
― Oliver Goldsmith

“Politeness is the result of good sense and good nature.”
― Oliver Goldsmith

“…The more enormous our wealth, the more extensive our fears, all our possessions are paled up with new edicts every day, and hung round with gibbets to scare every invader.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield

“What we place most hopes upon, generally proves most fatal.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield

“A reserved lover, it is said, always makes a suspicious husband.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer

“Where commerce and capitalism are invloved, often times, morality and honor sink to the bottom-Oliver Goldsmith paraphrased”
― Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer

“He who fights and runs away
May live to fight another day...”
― Oliver Goldsmith

“The beast retires to its shelter, and the bird flies to its nest; but the helpless man can only find refuge in his fellow creature.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield

“I have known many of those pretended champions for liberty in my time, yet do I not remember one that was not in his heart and in his family a tyrant.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield

“Friendship is a disinterested commerce between equals; love an abject intercourse between tyrants and slaves.”
― Oliver Goldsmith

“A book may be very amusing with numerous errors, or it may be very dull without a single absurdity.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield (Preface)

“The nakedness of the indignant world may be cloathed from the trimmings of the vain.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield

“I fretted myself about the mistakes of government, like other people; but finding myself every day grow more angry, and the government growing no better, I left it to mend itself.”
― Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer