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
views long musical
Fine declamation does not consist in flowery periods, delicate allusions of musical cadences, but in a plain, open, loose style, where the periods are long and obvious, where the same thought is often exhibited in several points of view.
gambling tables fortune
Whenever you see a gaming table be sure to know fortune is not there. Rather she is always in the company of industry.
hate shoes france
I hate the French because they are all slaves and wear wooden shoes.
men growth seems
Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.
home night scotland
What if in Scotland's wilds we viel'd our head, Where tempests whistle round the sordid bed; Where the rug's two-fold use we might display, By night a blanket, and a plaid by day.
hypocrisy care chiefs
Thus 'tis with all; their chief and constant care Is to seem everything but what they are.
world economy wells
It world be well had we more misers than we have among us.
fashion men names
What we say of a thing that has just come in fashion And that which we do with the dead, Is the name of the honestest man in the nation: What more of a man can be said?
hands play perfect
Popular glory is a perfect coquette; her lovers must toil, feel every inquietude, indulge every caprice, and perhaps at last be jilted into the bargain. True glory, on the other hand, resembles a woman of sense; her admirers must play no tricks. They feel no great anxiety, for they are sure in the end of being rewarded in proportion to their merit.
children men humanity
Were I to be angry at men being fools, I could here find ample room for declamation; but, alas! I have been a fool myself; and why should I be angry with them for being something so natural to every child of humanity?
joy decay fortune
Alas! the joys that fortune brings Are trifling, and decay, And those who prize the trifling things, More trifling still than they.
country character attention
It has been remarked that almost every character which has excited either attention or pity has owed part of its success to merit, and part to a happy concurrence of circumstances in its favor. Had Caesar or Cromwell exchanged countries, the one might have been a sergeant and the other an exciseman.
littles favors sometimes
We sometimes had those little rubs which Providence sends to enhance the value of its favors.
names society noblemen
I have known a German Prince with more titles than subjects, and a Spanish nobleman with more names than shirts.