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Life has been compared to a race, but the allusion improves by observing, that the most swift are usually the least manageable and the most likely to stray from the course. Great abilities have always been less serviceable to the possessors than moderate ones.
Topic: Ability
Source: None
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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.
Topic: Absence
Source: The Traveller (l. 7)
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There is nothing so absurd or ridiculous that has not at some time been said by some philosopher.
Topic: Absurdity
Source: None
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To what happy accident is it that we owe so unexpected a visit?
Topic: Accident
Source: Vicar of Wakefield (ch. XIX)
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On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting
'Twas only that when he was off, he was acting.
Topic: Acting
Source: Retaliation (l. 101)
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The king himself has follow'd her
When she has walk'd before.
Topic: Admiration
Source: Elegy on Mrs. Mary Blaise
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Heroes themselves had fallen behind!
--Whene'er he went before.
Topic: Admiration
Source: A Great Man
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Aromatic plants bestow
No spicy fragrance while they grow;
But crush'd or trodden to the ground,
Diffuse their balmy sweets around.
Topic: Adversity
Source: The Captivity (act I)
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No one but a fool would measure their satisfaction by what the world thinks of it.
Topic: Advice / Experience / Wisdom
Source: None
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She who makes her husband and her children happy, who reclaims the one from vice, and trains up the other to virtue, is a much greater character than the ladies described in romance, whose whole occupation is to murder mankind with shafts from their quiver or their eyes.
Topic: All About Love
Source: None
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Tenderness is a virtue.
Topic: All About Love
Source: None
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They please, are pleas'd, they give to get esteem
Till, seeming blest, they grow to what they seem.
Topic: Ambition
Source: The Traveller (l. 266)
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A night-cap deck'd his brows instead of bay,
A cap by night,--a stocking all the day.
Topic: Apparel
Source: Description of an Author's Bedchamber, in "Citizen of the World", Letter 30, "The Author's Club"
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It's like sending them ruffles, when wanting a shirt.
Topic: Apparel
Source: The Haunch of Venison
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The nakedness of the indigent world may be clothed from the
trimmings of the vain.
Topic: Apparel
Source: Vicar of Wakefield (ch. IV)
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Handsome is that handsome does.
Topic: Appearance
Source: Vicar of Wakefield (ch. I), also see Henry Fielding
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A modest woman, dressed out in all her finery, is the most tremendous object of the whole creation.
Topic: Appearance
Source: None
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In arguing, too, the parson own'd his skill,
For even though vanquished he could argue still.
Topic: Argument
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 211)
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His conduct still right with his argument wrong.
Topic: Argument
Source: Retaliation (l. 46)
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I find you want me to furnish you with argument and intellects
too. No, sir, these, I protest you, are too hard for me.
Topic: Argument
Source: Vicar of Wakefield (ch. VII)
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In arguing one should meet serious pleading with humor, and humor
with serious pleading.
Topic: Argument
Source: Vicar of Wakefield (ch. VII)
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His pencil was striking, resistless, and grand;
His manners were gentle, complying, and bland;
Still born to improve in every part,
His pencil out faces, his manners are heart.
Topic: Art
Source: Retaliation (l. 139)
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The canvas glow'd beyond ev'n nature warm;
The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.
Topic: Art
Source: The Traveller (l. 137)
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Trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay.
Topic: Business
Source: The Deserted Village, lines actually added to Goldsmith's work by Samuel Johnson
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Honour sinks where commerce long prevails.
Topic: Business
Source: None
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The pictures placed for ornament and use,
The twelve good rules, the royal game of goose.
Topic: Cards
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 231)
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Cheerful at morn he wakes from short repose,
Breathes the keen air, and carols as he goes.
Topic: Cheerfulness
Source: The Traveller (l. 1853)
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By sports like these are all their cares beguil'd,
The sports of children satisfy the child.
Topic: Childhood
Source: The Traveller (l. 153)
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Every pang that rends the heart.
Topic: Christ
Source: The Captivity
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To what fortuitous occurrence do we not owe every pleasure and
convenience of our lives.
Topic: Circumstance
Source: Vicar of Wakefield (ch. XXI)
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Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Topic: Cliches and One-Liners
Source: None
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Surely the best way to meet the enemy is head on in the field and not wait till they plunder our very homes.
Topic: Competition
Source: None
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Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength to
prevent, it seldom has justice enough to accuse.
Topic: Conscience
Source: Vicar of Wakefield (ch. XIII)
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Their wants but few, their wishes all confin'd.
Topic: Content
Source: The Traveller (l. 210)
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Where wealth and freedom reign, contentment fails,
And honour sinks where commerce long prevails.
Topic: Content
Source: The Traveller (l. 91)
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They would talk of nothing but high life and high-lived company,
with other fashionable topics, such as pictures, taste,
Shakespeare, and the musical glasses.
Topic: Conversation
Source: Vicar of Wakefield (ch. IX)
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"Very well," cried I, "that's a good girl; I find you are
perfectly qualified for making converts, and so go help your
mother to make the gooseberry bye."
Topic: Cookery
Source: Vicar of Wakefield (ch. VII)
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Blame where you must, be candid where you can,
And be each critic the Good-natured Man.
Topic: Criticism
Source: The Good-Natured Man (epilogue)
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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.
Topic: Dancing
Source: The Traveller (l. 251)
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That dire disease, whose ruthless power
Withers the beauty's transient flower.
Topic: Disease
Source: Double Transformation (l. 75)
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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.
Topic: Dogs
Source: Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog
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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.
Topic: Eating
Source: The Traveller (l. 17)
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Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way.
Topic: Example
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 170)
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Well had the boding tremblers learn'd to trace
The day's disasters in his morning face.
Topic: Faces
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 199)
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Who mix'd reason with pleasure, and wisdom with mirth;
If he had any faults, he has left us in doubt.
Topic: Faults
Source: Retaliation (l. 24)
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Honor sinks where commerce long prevails.
Topic: Finance and Economics
Source: None
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Of praise a mere glutton, he swallow'd what came,
And the puff a dunce, he mistook it for fame;
Till his relish grown callous, almost to displease,
Who pepper'd the highest was surest to please.
Topic: Flattery
Source: Retaliation (l. 109)
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No one but a fool would measure their satisfaction by what the world thinks of it.
Topic: Fools
Source: None
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Fortune is ever seen accompanying industry.
Topic: Fortune
Source: None
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I hate the French because they are all slaves and wear wooden
shoes.
Topic: France
Source: Essays (24 (1765 ed.)), appeared in the "British Magazine", June, 1760
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