Oliver Goldsmith Quotes

Her modest looks the cottage might adorn,
Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn.

There is no arguing with Johnson: for if his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it.

A man he was to all the country dear,
And passing rich with forty pounds a year.

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

Vain, very vain, my weary search to find
That bliss which only centers in the mind.

We sometimes had those little rubs which Providence sends to enhance the value of its favors.

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

A modest woman, dressed out in all her finery, is the most tremendous object of the whole creation.

Luke's iron crown, and Damien's bed of steel.

To the last moment of his breath
On hope the wretch relies;
And e'en the pang preceding death
Bids expectation rise.

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 destroyed, can never be supplied.

The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade,
For talking age and whispering lovers made.

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

[To Mr. Johnson] If you were to make little fishes talk, they would talk like whales.