126 Famous Quotes by Oliver Goldsmith
11/10/1730 - 4/4/1774
Professions:
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About Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith was an Anglo-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 Man and She Stoops to Conquer. He also wrote An History of the Earth and Animated Nature. He is thought to have written the classic children's tale The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes, the source of the phrase "goody two-shoes".
The only art her guilt to cover,
To hide her shame from every eye,
To give repentance to her lover,
And wring his bosom, is--to die.
Shame
Quotes, by Oliver Goldsmith , Source: Vicar of Wakefield (ch. XXIV)
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Her modest looks the cottage might adorn,
Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn.
Modesty
Quotes, by Oliver Goldsmith , Source: The Deserted Village (l. 329)
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And, e'en while fashion's brightest arts decoy,
The heart, distrusting, asks if this be joy.
Joy
Quotes, by Oliver Goldsmith , Source: The Deserted Village (l. 263)
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Amid thy desert-walks the lapwing flies,
And tires their echoes with unvaried cries.
Lapwings
Quotes, by Oliver Goldsmith , Source: The Deserted Village (l. 44)
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Blest be those feasts, with simple plenty crowned,
Where all the ruddy family around
Laugh at the jests or pranks that never fail
Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale.
Eating
Quotes, by Oliver Goldsmith , Source: The Traveller (l. 17)
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And in that town a dog was found,
As many dogs there be,
Both mongrel, puppy, whelp and hound,
And curs of low degree.
Dogs
Quotes, by Oliver Goldsmith , Source: Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog
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Alike all ages: dames of ancient days
Have led their children through the mirthful maze,
And the gay grandsire, skill'd in gestic lore,
Has frisk'd beneath the burden of threescore.
Dancing
Quotes, by Oliver Goldsmith , Source: The Traveller (l. 251)
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Pride in their port, defiance in their eye,
I see the lords of humankind pass by.
Pride
Quotes, by Oliver Goldsmith , Source: The Traveller (l. 327)
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A flattering painter, who made it his care
To draw men as they ought to be, not as they are.
Painting
Quotes, by Oliver Goldsmith , Source: Retaliation (l. 63)
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At night returning, every labour sped,
He sits him down, the monarch of a shed;
Smiles by his cheerful fire, and round surveys
His children's looks, that brighten at the blaze;
While his lov'd partner, boastful of her hoard,
Displays her cleanly platter on the board.
Home
Quotes, by Oliver Goldsmith , Source: The Traveller (l. 191)
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How small of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!
Still to ourselves in every place consigned,
Our own felicity we make or find.
With secret course, which no loud storms annoy,
Glides the smooth current of domestic joy.
Home
Quotes, by Oliver Goldsmith , Source: The Traveller (l. 429)
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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.
Home
Quotes, by Oliver Goldsmith , Source: The Traveller (l. 429)
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Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see,
My heart untravelled, fondly turns to thee;
Still to my brother turns, with ceaseless pain,
And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.
Absence
Quotes, by Oliver Goldsmith , Source: The Traveller (l. 7)
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Well had the boding tremblers learn'd to trace
The day's disasters in his morning face.
Faces
Quotes, by Oliver Goldsmith , Source: The Deserted Village (l. 199)
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On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting
'Twas only that when he was off, he was acting.
Acting
Quotes, by Oliver Goldsmith , Source: Retaliation (l. 101)
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By sports like these are all their cares beguil'd,
The sports of children satisfy the child.
Childhood
Quotes, by Oliver Goldsmith , Source: The Traveller (l. 153)
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What cities, as great as this, have . . . promised themselves
immortality! Posterity can hardly trace the situation of some.
The sorrowful traveller wanders over the awful ruins of others
others. . . . Here stood their citadel, but now grown over with
weeds; there their senate-house, but now the haunt of every
noxious reptile; temples and theatres stood here, now only an
undistinguished heap of ruins.
Ruin
Quotes, by Oliver Goldsmith , Source: The Bee (no. IV, A City Night-Piece)
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