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
commerce contentment freedom honor prevails wealth
Where wealth and freedom reign; contentment fails, And honor sinks where commerce long prevails
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
successful riches wealth
The jests of the rich are ever successful.
men decay wealth
Where wealth accumulates, men decay.
ignorance riches wealth
And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.
land rose wealth
But times are alter'd; trade's unfeeling train Usurp the land, and dispossess the swain; Along the lawn, where scatter'd hamlets rose, Unwieldy wealth and cumbrous pomp repose.
men decay wealth
Wealth accumulates, and men decay.
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.