Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmithwas an Irish novelist, playwright and poet, who is best known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield, his pastoral poem The Deserted Village, and his plays The Good-Natur'd Manand She Stoops to Conquer. He is thought to have written the classic children's tale The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth10 November 1730
CountryIreland
looks news older statesmen talked village
Where village statesmen talked with looks profound, / And news much older than their ale went round.
direct management pretend
Who can direct when all pretend to know?
eloquence rules speak subject thoroughly
To feel your subject thoroughly and to speak without fear, are the only rules of eloquence
poor source thou
Thou source of all my bliss, and all my woe, / That foundst me poor at first, and keepst me so.
becomes coffin handsome
I am told he makes a very handsome corpse, and becomes his coffin prodigiously.
fond former joys pain past recurring thou turning
O Memory, thou fond deceiver, Still importunate and vain, To former joys recurring ever, And turning all the past to pain
best care falls forward greatest life till
Life at the greatest and best is but a forward child, that must be humored and coaxed a little till it falls asleep, and then all the care is over.
argument furnish intellects
I find you want me to furnish you with argument and intellects too.
musical taste
With other fashionable topics, such as pictures, taste, Shakespeare, and the musical glasses.
govern thoughts-and-thinking
Those that think must govern those that toil.
nice proud
Too nice for a statesman, too proud for a wit.
laughter laughing way
The best way to make your audience laugh is to start laughing yourself.
people desire thousand
People seek within a short span of life to satisfy a thousand desires, each of which is insatiable.
again battle fights rise runs slain
For he who fights and runs away May live to fight another day; But he who is in battle slain Can never rise and fight again