Oliver Goldsmith Quotes

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

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.

Turn, gentle Hermit of the Dale,
And guide my lonely way
To where yon taper cheers the vale
With hospitable ray.

Measures, not men, have always been my mark.

How happy he who crowns in shades like these,
A youth of labour with an age of ease.

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

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

The very pink of perfection.

His conduct still right, with his argument wrong.

He cast off his friends as a huntsman his pack,
For he knew when he pleased he could whistle them back.

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

He calls his extravagance, generosity; and his trusting everybody, universal benevolence.

I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.

Who mix'd reason with pleasure, and wisdom with mirth:
If he had any faults, he has left us in doubt.

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