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
best gave ignorance innocence labor life light spread wealth wholesome
For him light labor spread her wholesome store, Just gave what life required, but gave no more: His best companions, innocence and health; And his best riches, ignorance of wealth
ignorance riches wealth
And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.
ignorance
Prudery is ignorance.
fashion ignorance order
A French woman is a perfect architect in dress: she never, with Gothic ignorance, mixes the orders; she never tricks out a snobby Doric shape with Corinthian finery; or, to speak without metaphor, she conforms to general fashion only when it happens not to be repugnant to private beauty.
ignorance stupidity badges
Paltry affectation, strained allusions, and disgusting finery are easily attained by those who choose to wear them; they are but too frequently the badges of ignorance or of stupidity, whenever it would endeavor to please.
musical taste
With other fashionable topics, such as pictures, taste, Shakespeare, and the musical glasses.
nice proud
Too nice for a statesman, too proud for a wit.
govern thoughts-and-thinking
Those that think must govern those that toil.
begin gaiety gay levity lose melancholy natives remarkable serious time western
To begin with Ireland, the most western part of the continent, the natives are peculiarly remarkable for their gaiety and levity of their disposition ; the English, transplanted there, in time lose their serious melancholy air, and become gay and tho
beside fence
Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way, / With blossomed furze unprofitably gay.
coat priest religion shoes
As I take my shoes from the shoemaker, and my coat from the tailor, so I take my religion from the priest
fond pursue
Too fond of the right to pursue the expedient.
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.