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
want argument protest
I find you want me to furnish you with argument and intellects too. No, sir, these, I protest you, are too hard for me.
want virtue prudence
Want of prudence is too frequently the want of virtue.
names soul want
If the soul be happily disposed, every thing becomes capable of affording entertainment, and distress will almost want a name.
want pleasure source
Every want that stimulates the breast becomes a source of pleasure when redressed.
circles luxury want
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
thank-you pain want
Blest that abode, where want and pain repair, And every stranger finds a ready chair.
want use speech
The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them.
fond pursue
Too fond of the right to pursue the expedient.
subject winds
Is he like Burke, who winds into a subject like a serpent?
guarded requires scarcely sentinel virtue worth
The virtue which requires to be ever guarded is scarcely worth the sentinel
absurdity champion defend error talkative
Every absurdity has a champion to defend it, for error is always talkative
children endearing followed good share
Even children followed with endearing wile,/ And plucked his gown, to share the good man's smile.
aims far heart house known learned raise relieved skilled wretched
Far other aims his heart had learned to prize, / More skilled to raise the wretched than to rise. / His house was known to all the vagrant train, / He chid their wanderings, but relieved their pain.
defiance eye human lords pass pride
Pride in their port, defiance in their eye I see the Lords of human kind pass by.