Oliver Goldsmith quote: "We had no revolutions to fear, nor fatigues to undergo; all our adventures were by the fireside, and all our migrations from the blue bed to the brown."

The hours we pass with happy prospects in view are more pleasing than those crowded with fruition.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain, With grammar, and nonsense, and learning, Good liquor, I stout...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Where wealth accumulates, men decay.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

If you were to make little fishes talk, they would talk like whales.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Honour sinks where commerce long prevails.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

All that a husband or wife really wants is to be pitied a little, praised a little, and appreciated ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Every absurdity has a champion to defend it.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

While resignation gently slopes the way; And, all his prospects brightening to the last, His h...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Take a dollar from a thousand and it will be a thousand no more.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The first time I read an excellent book, it is to me just as if I had gained a new friend. When I ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

In a polite age almost every person becomes a reader, and receives more instruction from the Press ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The watch-dog's voice that bay'd the whispering wind, And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant min...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

You, that are going to be married, think things can never be done too fast: but we that are old, and...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

I... chose my wife as she did her wedding-gown, not for a fine glossy surface, but such qualities as...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The first time I read an excellent book, it is to me just as if I had gained a new friend. When I re...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Leans for all pleasure on another's breast.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The life of man is a journey; a journey that must be traveled, however bad the roads or the accommod...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Life at the greatest and best is but a froward child, that must be humored and coaxed a little till ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Like the bee, we should make our industry our amusement.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

All is not gold that glitters,
Pleasure seems sweet, but proves a glass of bitters
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Here lies our good Edmund, whose genius was such We scarcely can praise it or blame it too much; ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Friendship is a disinterested commerce between equals; love, an abject intercourse between tyrants a...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

How blest is he who crowns in shades like these, A youth of labour with an age of ease.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

And, e'en while fashion's brightest arts decoy, The heart, distrusting, asks if this be joy.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no fibs.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

I love everything that is old; old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

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

Some faults are so closely allied to qualities that it is difficult to weed out the vice without era...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Vain, very vain is my search to find; that happiness which only centers in the mind.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

It seemed to me pretty plain, that they had more of love than matrimony in them.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

With disadvantages enough to bring him to humility, a Scotsman is one of the proudest things alive.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Our pleasures are short, and can only charm at intervals; love is a method of protraction our greate...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

To what fortuitous occurrence do we not owe every pleasure and convenience of our lives.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

There is nothing so absurd or ridiculous that has not at some time been said by some philosopher. Fo...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, that one small head could carry all he knew.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

A traveler of taste will notice that the wise are polite all over the world, but the fool only at ho...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Who can direct when all pretend to know?
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Law grinds the poor, and rich men rule the law.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The best way to make your audience laugh is to start laughing yourself.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The malicious sneer is improperly called laughter.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

If one wishes to become rich they must appear rich.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

I can't say whether we had more wit among us now than usual, but I am certain we had more laughing, ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Good counsel rejected returns to enrich the givers bosom.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The ambitious are forever followed by adulation for they receive the most pleasure from flattery.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Life has been compared to a race, but the allusion improves by observing, that the most swift are us...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

There is no arguing with him, for if his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Honor sinks where commerce long prevails.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Unequal combinations are always disadvantageous to the weaker side.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Surely the best way to meet the enemy is head on in the field and not wait till they plunder our ver...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Every absurdity has a champion to defend it; for error is always talkative.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Crime generally punishes itself.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Girls like to be played with, and rumpled a little too, sometimes.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

But in his duty prompt at every call, he watched and wept, he prayed and felt for all.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The doctor found, when she was dead, her last disorder mortal.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

People seek within a short span of life to satisfy a thousand desires, each of which is insatiable.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

When a person has no need to borrow they find multitudes willing to lend.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Write how you want, the critic shall show the world you could have written better.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

In all the silent manliness of grief.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Modesty seldom resides in a breast that is not enriched with nobler virtues.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The hours that we pass with happy prospects in view are more pleasing than those crowned with succes...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Hope, like the gleaming taper
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

To aim at excellence, our reputation, and friends, and all must be ventured; to aim at the average w...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Fear guides more than gratitude.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

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

Fortune is ever seen accompanying industry.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The company of fools may first make us smile, but in the end we always feel melancholy.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

No one but a fool would measure their satisfaction by what the world thinks of it.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

For he that fights and runs away, may live to fight another day, but he, who is in battle slain, can...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

She who makes her husband and her children happy, who reclaims the one from vice, and trains up the ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Romance and novel paint beauty in colors more charming than nature, and describe a happiness that hu...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Tenderness is a virtue.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Aromatic plants bestow
no spicy fragrance while they grow;
but crush'd or trodden to the groun...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Ridicule has always been the enemy of enthusiasm, and the only worthy opponent to ridicule is succes...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The heart of every man lies open to the shafts of correction if the archer can take proper aim.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

He cast off his friends as a huntsman his pack, for he knew when he pleased he could whistle them ba...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Pity and friendship are two passions incompatible with each other.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

People seldom improve when they have no other model, but themselves to copy after.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Thou source of all my bliss and all my woe, that found me poor at first, and keep me so.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Whenever you see a gaming table be sure to know fortune is not there. Rather she is always in the co...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

When any one of our relations was found to be a person of a very bad character, a troublesome guest,...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The mind is ever ingenious in making its own distress.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The dancing pair that simply sought renown,
By holding out to tire each other down;
The swain ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

I have known a German Prince with more titles than subjects, and a Spanish nobleman with more names ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Our chief comforts often produce our greatest anxieties, and the increase in our possessions is but ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

A night-cap deck'd his brows instead of bay, A cap by night,--a stocking all the day.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

It's like sending them ruffles, when wanting a shirt.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

There is nothing so absurd or ridiculous that has not at some time been said by some philosopher.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see, My heart untravelled, fondly turns to thee; Still to ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

"Very well," cried I, "that's a good girl; I find you are perfectly qualified for making converts, ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

They would talk of nothing but high life and high-lived company, with other fashionable topics, suc...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Where wealth and freedom reign, contentment fails, And honour sinks where commerce long prevails.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Their wants but few, their wishes all confin'd.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

To what fortuitous occurrence do we not owe every pleasure and convenience of our lives.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Every pang that rends the heart.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The pictures placed for ornament and use, The twelve good rules, the royal game of goose.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

In arguing one should meet serious pleading with humor, and humor with serious pleading.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

His conduct still right with his argument wrong.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

In arguing, too, the parson own'd his skill, For even though vanquished he could argue still.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

I find you want me to furnish you with argument and intellects too. No, sir, these, I protest you,...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Man wants but little here below Nor wants that little long.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

As ten millions of circles can never make a square, so the united voice of myriads cannot lend the ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Zeal is very blind, or badly regulated, when it encroaches upon the rights of others
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The king himself has follow'd her When she has walk'd before.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

He watch'd and wept, he pray'd and felt for all.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

A flattering painter, who made it his care To draw men as they ought to be, not as they are.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Where village statesmen talk'd with looks profound. And news much older than their ale went round.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

And the weak soul, within itself unbless'd, Leans for all pleasure on another's breast.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Full well they laughed, with counterfeited glee, At all his jokes, for many a joke had he: Ful...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Silence gives consent.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

No one but a fool would measure their satisfaction by what the world thinks of it.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

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

Heroes themselves had fallen behind! --Whene'er he went before.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The whitewash'd wall, the nicely sanded floor, The varnish'd clock that click'd behind the door; ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Who mix'd reason with pleasure, and wisdom with mirth; If he had any faults, he has left us in dou...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

So the loud torrent, and the whirlwind's roar, But bind him to his native mountains more.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

His house was known to all the vagrant train, He chid their wanderings but reliev'd their pain; ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

I chose my wife, as she did her wedding gown, for qualities that would wear well
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The dancing pair that simply sought renown,By holding out to tire each other down;The swain mistrust...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Surely the best way to meet the enemy is head on in the field and not wait till they plunder our ve...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Life has been compared to a race, but the allusion improves by observing, that the most swift are ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Cheerful at morn he wakes from short repose, Breathes the keen air, and carols as he goes.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

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

That dire disease, whose ruthless power Withers the beauty's transient flower.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Turn, gentle Hermit of the Dale, And guide my lonely way To where you taper cheers the vale ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam, His first best country ever is at home.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

To what happy accident is it that we owe so unexpected a visit?
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Thus 'tis with all; their chief and constant care Is to seem everything but what they are.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace the day's disasters in his morning face.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Well had the boding tremblers learn'd to trace The day's disasters in his morning face.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

I have spent my life laboriously doing nothing. [Lat., Vitam perdidi laboricose agendo.]
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines; and, I beli...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Thus idly busy rolls their world away.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

His pencil was striking, resistless, and grand; His manners were gentle, complying, and bland; ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Alike all ages: dames of ancient days Have led their children through the mirthful maze, And ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Hope, like the gleaming taper's light,
Adorns and cheers our way;
And still, as darker grows...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

There are some faults so nearly allied to excellence that we can scarce weed out the vice without er...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

I chose my wife, as she did her wedding gown, for qualities that would wear well.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

I love everything that's old, - old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Be not affronted at a joke. If one throw salt at thee, thou wilt receive no harm, unless thou art ra...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Ceremonies are different in every country, but true politeness is everywhere the same.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

As writers become more numerous, it is natural for readers to become more indolent; whence must nece...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

When lovely woman stoops to folly, and finds too late that men betray, what charm can soothe her mel...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Hope is such a bait, it covers any hook.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

What cities, as great as this, have . . . promised themselves immortality! Posterity can hardly tr...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

They shall knaw a file, and flee unto the mountains of Hepsidam whar the lion roareth and the Wang ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

But in his duty prompt at every call, He watch'd and wept, he pray'd and felt for all.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Good people all, with one accord, Lament for Madame Blaize, Who never wanted a good word-- ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The man recover'd of the bite, The dog it was that died.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

A great source of calamity lies in regret and anticipation; therefore a person is wise who thinks of...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Hoards after hoards his rising raptures fill; Yet still he sighs, for hoards are wanting still.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

But winter lingering chills the lap of May.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Amid thy desert-walks the lapwing flies, And tires their echoes with unvaried cries.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

O Luxury! thou curst by Heaven's decree.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Every absurdity has a champion to defend it, for error is always talkative.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain, With grammar, and nonsense, and learning; Good liquor, I...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

I'll be with you in the squeezing of a lemon.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

At night returning, every labour sped, He sits him down, the monarch of a shed; Smiles by his ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, Eternal sunshine settles on its head.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Of all the plants that cover the earth and lie like a fringe of hair upon the body of our grandmothe...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Careless their merits or their faults to scan, His pity gave ere charity began.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

A kind and gentle heart he had, To comfort friends and foes; The naked every day he clad ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Ill fares the land, to hast'ning ill a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay;
Prince...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

A man who leaves home to mend himself and others is a philosopher; but he who goes from country to c...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Those that think must govern those that toil.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Gay, sprightly, land of mirth and social ease Pleased with thyself, whom all the world can please.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Wisdom makes a slow defense against trouble, though a sure one in the end.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, and fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The jests of the rich are ever successful.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, where wealth accumulates, and men decay.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

I hate the French because they are all slaves and wear wooden shoes.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

If frugality were established in the state, and if our expenses were laid out to meet needs rather t...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Friendship is a disinterested commerce between equals; love, an abject intercourse between tyrants a...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The only art her guilt to cover, To hide her shame from every eye, To give repentance to her l...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The canvas glow'd beyond ev'n nature warm; The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Man wants but little here below, Nor wants that little long.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Let observation with observant view, Observe mankind from China to Peru.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

I love everything that's old, - old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

They say women and music should never be dated
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The very pink of perfection.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Aromatic plants bestow no spicy fragrance while they grow; but crush'd or trodden to the ground, dif...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

You may all go to pot.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

If you were to make little fishes talk, they would talk like whales
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

I was ever of the opinion, that the honest man who married and brought up a large family, did more s...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting, 'Twas only when he was off, he was acting
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Still to ourselves in every place consigned, / Our own felicity we make or find.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

This is Liberty-Hall, gentlemen.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Like the bee, we should make our industry our amusement
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them
OLIVER GOLDSMITH

We had no revolutions to fear, nor fatigues to undergo; all our adventures were by the fireside, and all our migrations from the blue bed to the brown.

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Oliver Goldsmith

We had no revolutions to fear, nor fatigues to undergo; all our adventures were by the fireside, and all our migrations from the blue bed to the brown.

Oliver Goldsmith

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