As in some Irish houses, where things are so-so, Oliver Goldsmith More Quotes by Oliver Goldsmith More Quotes From Oliver Goldsmith One should not quarrel with a dog without a reason sufficient to vindicate one through all the courts of morality. Oliver Goldsmith morality dog reason It is not easy to recover an art when once lost. Oliver Goldsmith easy lost art The work of eradicating crimes is not by making punishment familiar, but formidable. Oliver Goldsmith punishment familiar crime There is one way by which a strolling player may be ever secure of success; that is, in our theatrical way of expressing it, to make a great deal of the character. To speak and act as in common life is not playing, nor is it what people come to see; natural speaking, like sweet wine, runs glibly over the palate and scarcely leaves any taste behind it; but being high in a part resembles vinegar, which grates upon the taste, and one feels it while he is drinking. Oliver Goldsmith drinking running sweet The Europeans are themselves blind who describe fortune without sight. No first-rate beauty ever had finer eyes, or saw more clearly. They who have no other trade but seeking their fortune need never hope to find her; coquette-like, she flies from her close pursuers, and at last fixes on the plodding mechanic who stays at home and minds his business. Oliver Goldsmith eye sight home What real good does an addition to a fortune already sufficient procure? Not any. Could the great man, by having his fortune increased, increase also his appetites, then precedence might be attended with real amusement. Oliver Goldsmith real might men Philosophy ... should not pretend to increase our present stock, but make us economists of what we are possessed of. Oliver Goldsmith increase should philosophy Pity, though it may often relieve, is but, at best, a short-lived passion, and seldom affords distress more than transitory assistance; with some it scarce lasts from the first impulse till the hand can be put into the pocket. Oliver Goldsmith passion may hands Men may be very learned, and yet very miserable; it is easy to be a deep geometrician, or a sublime astronomer, but very difficult to be a good man. I esteem, therefore, the traveller who instructs the heart, but despise him who only indulges the imagination. 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 only a vagabond. Oliver Goldsmith home heart country Though very poor, may still be very blest. Oliver Goldsmith poor stills may In proportion as society refines, new books must ever become more necessary. Oliver Goldsmith new-books proportion book Books are necessary to correct the vices of the polite; but those vices are ever changing, and the antidote should be changed accordingly should still be new. Oliver Goldsmith vices should book To husband out life's taper at the close, And keep the flames from wasting by repose. Oliver Goldsmith repose flames husband 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. Oliver Goldsmith pages body book The soul may be compared to a field of battle, where the armies are ready every moment to encounter. Not a single vice but has a more powerful opponent, and not one virtue but may be overborne by a combination of vices. Oliver Goldsmith army powerful soul Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see, Oliver Goldsmith missing-someone missing-you goodbye He watched and wept and prayed and felt for all Oliver Goldsmith felt sympathy The malicious sneer is improperly called laughter. Oliver Goldsmith sneer malicious laughter Life has been compared to a race, but the allusion improves by observing, that the most swift are usually the least manageable and the most likely to stray from the course. Great abilities have always been less serviceable to the possessors than moderate ones. Oliver Goldsmith ability race life There is nothing magnanimous in bearing misfortunes with fortitude, when the whole world is looking on.... He who, without friends to encourage or even without hope to alleviate his misfortunes, can behave with tranquility and indifference, is truly great. Oliver Goldsmith indifference strength world
