True generosity is a duty as indispensably necessary as those imposed on us by law.—It is a rule imposed by reason, which should be the sovereign law of a rational being.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Generosity
Winter, lingering, chills the lap of May.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Spring
It has been a thousand times observed, and I must observe it once more, that the hours we pass with happy prospects in view are more pleasing than those crowned with fruition.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Anticipation, Realistic Expectations, Hope, Future
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
Topics: Regret, Anticipation
Ceremonies are different in every country, but true politeness is everywhere the same.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Manners
Our chief comforts often produce our greatest anxieties, and the increase in our possessions is but an inlet to new disquietudes.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Consumerism
People seldom improve, when they have no other model but themselves to copy after.
—Oliver Goldsmith
With disadvantages enough to bring him to humility, a Scotsman is one of the proudest things alive.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Nationality, Nation, Nationalities, Nationalism
Fortune is ever seen accompanying industry, and is as often trundling in a wheelbarrow as lolling in a coach and six.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Fortune, Luck
I have known a German Prince with more titles than subjects, and a Spanish nobleman with more names than shirts.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Aristocracy
A map does not exhibit a more distinct view of the situation and boundaries of every country, than its news does a picture of the genius and morals of its inhabitants.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: News
The first blow is half the battle.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Beginning, Battle
Whatever mitigates the woes, or increases the happiness of others, is a just criterion of goodness; and whatever injures society at large, or any individual in it, is a criterion of iniquity.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Happiness, Goodness
The mind is ever ingenious in making its own distress.
—Oliver Goldsmith
The current of tenderness widens as it proceeds; and two men imperceptibly find their hearts filled with good nature for each other, when they were at first only in pursuit of mirth and relaxation.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Hope, like the gleaming taper’s light, adorns and cheers our way; and still, as darker grows the night, emits a brighter ray.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Hope
For just experience tells, in every soil, That those who think must govern those who toil
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Experience
Tenderness, without a capacity of relieving, only makes the man who feels it more wretched than the object which sues for assistance.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Nothing is so contemptible as that affectation of wisdom which some display by universal incredulity.
—Oliver Goldsmith
The more various our artificial necessities, the wider is our circle of pleasure; for all pleasure consists in obviating necessities as they rise; luxury, therefore, as it increases our wants, increases our capacity for happiness
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Luxury
Religion does what philosophy could never do.—It shows the equal dealings of heaven to the happy and the unhappy, and levels all human enjoyments to nearly the same standard.—It offers to both rich and poor the same happiness hereafter, and equal hopes to aspire after it.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Religion
Compliments which we think are deserved, we accept only as debts, with indifference; but those which conscience informs us we do not merit, we receive with the same gratitude that we do favors given away.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Compliments
O Luxury! thou curst by Heaven’s decree.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Luxury
A mind too vigorous and active, serves only to consume the body to which it is joined, as the richest jewels are soonest found to wear their settings.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Mind
If the soul be happily disposed, everything becomes capable of affording entertainment, and distress will almost want a name.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Pleasure, Cheerfulness
Fear guides more to duty than gratitude.—For one man who is virtuous from the love of virtue, or from the obligation he thinks he lies under to the giver of all, there are thousands who are good only from their apprehension of punishment.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Fear
The bounds of a man’s knowledge are easily concealed if he has but prudence.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Prudence
The patriot’s boast, where’er we roam, his first, best country ever is at home
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Patriotism
The canvas glow’d beyond ev’n Nature warm, The pregnant quarry teem’d with human form.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Pregnancy
The malicious sneer is improperly called laughter.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Topics: Laughter
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Oscar Wilde Irish Poet, Playwright
- George William Russell Irish Author
- Brendan Behan Irish Poet
- Jonathan Swift Irish Satirist
- Edmund Burke British Philosopher, Statesman
- William Butler Yeats Irish Poet
- James Joyce Irish Novelist
- Laurence Sterne Irish Anglican Novelist
- Elizabeth Bowen Irish Novelist
- Sheridan Le Fanu Irish Novelist
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