Quotes by Oliver Goldsmith

“Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no fibs.”

“In all my wanderings through this world of care,In all my griefs -- and God has given my share --I still had hopes, my latest hours to crown,Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down;To husband out...”

“We take gingko to sharpen our memories. We could be memorizing song lyrics instead.”

“Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse.”

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

“If you find yourself pulled beyond all practicality toward doing something -- writing poetry, building a business, restoring old cars, planting a secret garden; if at four in the morning the right ...”

“In my box of sound bites there are no jackhammers, no snowmobiles, no Jet Skis, no children wailing. Music but no Muzak.It's my box. Put what you want in yours.”

“Hope, like the gleaming tapers light, adorns and cheers our way; and still, as darker grows the night, emits a brighter ray.”

“I love everything that is old; old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.”

“The first time I read an excellent book, it is to me just as if I had gained a new friend. When I read a book over I have perused before, it resembles the meeting with an old one.”

“The more enormous our wealth, the more extensive our fears, all our possessions are paled up with new edicts every day, and hung round with gibbets to scare every invader.”

“They may talk of a comet, or a burning mountain, or some such bagatelle; but to me a modest woman, dressed out in all her finery, is the most tremendous object of the whole creation.”

“Modesty seldom resides in a breast that is not enriched with nobler virtues.”

“Romance and novel paint beauty in colors more charming than nature, and describe a happiness that humans never taste. How deceptive and destructive are those pictures of consummate bliss!”

“A man who leaves home to mend himself and others is a philosopher; but he who goes from country to country, guided by the blind impulse of curiosity, is a vagabond.”

“All that a husband or wife really wants is to be pitied a little, praised a little, and appreciated a little.”

“Pity and friendship are two passions incompatible with each other.”

“Friendship is a disinterested commerce between equals; love, an abject intercourse between tyrants and slaves.”

“Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.”

“You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.”